While Oppenheimer was bursting at the seams with incredible performances, Robert Downey Jr. was a particular standout. Widely considered one of 2023's best films, Oppenheimer chronicles the life and times of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), particularly as he was developing the world's first atomic bomb. A smashing success, Oppenheimer made nearly $1 billion at the worldwide box office and took home a plethora of Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Murphy), and Best ing Actor for Downey. Oppenheimer is also notable for netting acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan his first Academy Award, as he won for Best Director.

Robert Downey Jr. has been a prolific actor for decades, who publicly struggled with addiction only to achieve one of the best comebacks in Hollywood history when he was cast as Tony Stark in Iron Man, the first-ever MCU movie, which was released in 2008. Downey played Iron Man for over a decade, and though he was involved in some other acting projects during that time, many wondered if he had an awards-worthy performance in him. It turns out he did, as Downey's Oscar-winning Oppenheimer performance will go down in history as one of the actor's best.

Robert Downey Jr. Plays Lewis Strauss In Oppenheimer

Strauss Was An AEC Chairman Who Was Envious Of Oppenheimer

Robert Downey Jr, portrays AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss, who is an antagonistic force to J. Robert Oppenheimer in the 1950s timeline of the film. The main focus of Strauss' narrative is his attempts to have Oppenheimer stripped of his Q clearance in the US Department of Energy on the pretense that he had ties to the Communist party. Strauss helped lead a series of investigations regarding Oppenheimer, which leads to the film's true climax.

This pettiness and jealousy were seemingly the main driving force behind his desire to destroy Oppenheimer's credibility.

Lewis Strauss was consistently shown throughout the film to be petty and extremely jealous of Oppenheimer. This pettiness and jealousy were seemingly the main driving force behind his desire to destroy Oppenheimer's credibility. All of Strauss' hostility stemmed from his witnessing a conversation between Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) in 1947, in which Strauss believed Oppenheimer was speaking poorly of him to the famed theoretical physicist. This misperceived slight speaks to the film's themes of how ego can have devastating global consequences.

Were Lewis Strauss & J. Robert Oppenheimer Enemies In Real Life?

Though Christopher Nolan and Robert Downey Jr. did a lot of work to capture the real-life figure of Lewis Strauss, the story is still depicted through the lens of Oppenheimer, which can distort the other characters that surround him slightly. Still, Lewis Strauss and J. Robert Oppenheimer were "enemies" in real life, or at least, opposing forces. The events that played out regarding Lewis' narrative throughout the film did largely happen, and he did succeed in getting Oppenheimer's clearance revoked.

However, while Oppenheimer is a true story, it is a still a narrative film, so Strauss' negative feelings toward J. Robert Oppenheimer were likely elevated for the purpose of dramatic conflict. Like many figures, Downey's character was an incredibly complex person and no three-hour narrative would be able to catch the full breadth of who Lewis Strauss was.

What Robert Downey Jr. Has Said About His Oppenheimer Role

In a fantastic interview with Vulture, Robert Downey Jr. opened up about playing Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer. He confessed to being fascinated by Strauss long before the Oppenheimer project came his way, which speaks to his incredibly strong performance. Downey said,

Then he [Nolan] asked me if I was at all familiar with the character. It has been a longtime contemplation, verging on obsession, of mine: mid-century Cold War and all the characters involved... I had a previous fair understanding of Strauss.

While Lewis Strauss isn't a villain on the level of those Downey faced off against in the MCU, he's certainly an antagonistic force with questionable morals in Oppenheimer. However, like most great antagonists, Downey's Strauss sees himself as the hero of his own story, and his character's ion permeated through to the actor himself. Downey said,

Then I challenged a little bit the Mozart-Salieri of it all. I said, 'I'm not sure in some ways that Strauss isn't a bit the hero here,' which kind of raised an eyebrow on Chris. I half-jokingly challenged him on whether iral Strauss hadn't done everything that any patriotic American would've done.

Though his role in Oppenheimer finally earned Robert Downey Jr. an Oscar, he was nominated two times before, for Tropic Thunder and Chaplin.

That viewpoint can be seen running through Downey's performance as Lewis Strauss, and it is one of the reasons it was so powerful, and earned him the long-awaited Oscar. Lewis Strauss did believe what he was doing was right, even if he felt slighted or jealous at the same time. It is what makes him so compelling as a person and as an antagonist to J. Robert Oppenheimer. Robert Downey Jr. understood how to approach Lewis Strauss, and was one of the best aspects of Oppenheimer.

Source: Vulture