Robert Downey Jr. Reflects on His Father Giving Him Drugs at Age 6

Robert Downey Jr. is offering an intimate glimpse into his relationship with his father, Robert Downey Sr. In his new Netflix documentary Sr., the actor shares memories and talks with and about his father in the later stages of his father’s life as Sr. battles Parkinson’s disease. He died at the age of 85 in July 2021. Their relationship was often turbulent at times. In the project, which was produced by the actor and his wife Susan, Downey Jr. discusses how he was introduced to drugs and became addicted at age 8. His father gave him cannabis for the first time two years prior when he was just 6 years old, per Entertainment Tonight Canada. 

“I think we would be remiss not to discuss its effect on me,” the actor says, as his father Sr. chimes in, “Boy, I would sure love to miss that discussion.” The documentary includes a clip from an old interview. Sr. admits in their conversation: “A lot of us thought it would be hypocritical not to have our kids participate in marijuana and stuff like that. It was an idiot move on our parts to share that with our children. I’m just happy he’s here.”

Amid his son’s addiction, she says he worried if he’d never survive “many times.” Marijuana turned out to be a gateway for the actor, as he later struggled with harder substances. Downey Jr. compared his addiction to cocaine and heroin to “like [having] a shotgun in my mouth, and I’ve got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal.”

He would spend time in and out of prison. In a 1988 interview, the actor said that doing drugs became something he and Sr. bonded over. At the time, he said: “When my dad and I would do drugs together, it was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew.”

Downey Jr. is now sober. He met Levin in 2003, and said she’d only marry him if he promised a life of sobriety. They wed in 2005.