Oscars 2024: Robert Downey Jr wins his first Academy Award for ‘Oppenheimer’, says “like to thank my terrible childhood”

Los Angeles [US]: Good news for all the Robert Downey Jr fans as the Hollywood star bagged his first-ever Oscar award for his performance in the biopic drama film ‘Oppenheimer’.

Downey Jr won the award in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Taking to X, The Academy shared a post and wrote, “Congratulations to Robert Downey Jr. on winning Best Supporting Actor for ‘Oppenheimer’!”

He triumphed over Sterling K Brown (American Fiction), Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon), Ryan Gosling (Barbie) and Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things).
After taking the stage, Downey Jr. said, “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order.”

He then joked, “I’d like to thank my veterinarian– I meant wife — Susan Downey over there. She found me, a snarling rescue pet, and loved me back to life,” as per PEOPLE.

Later, he thanked Christopher Nolan, the director of Oppenheimer, and his costars.

“I needed this job more than it needed me. Chris knew it…,” he said, before shouting out costars Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy and their time working together. “I stand here a better man because of it.”
Downey Jr. also thanked his stylist and his entertainment lawyer, and closed out his speech with a shoutout to his kids, Avri, Exton and Indio, reported PEOPLE.

The Oscars 2024 are currently underway at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles and are streaming live on the OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar.

‘Oppenheimer’ has bagged the nominations in 13 categories at the 96th Academy Awards.
The Nolan’s biopic also bagged the Oscar for Best Film Editing.

Earlier, Downey Jr won the Best Supporting Actor award at the BAFTA Awards 2024, Critics Choice Awards 2024, and the Golden Globe Awards 2024.

Robert Downey Jr played the role of Lewis Strauss in Nolan’s biopic of the titular physicist (played by Cillian Murphy). Lewis Strauss played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb and later became a political rival of J Robert Oppenheimer.

The film was helmed by Christopher Nolan.

The biopic, set during World War II, follows Oppenheimer, known as the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” during a period in history when he understood that testing the atomic bomb would ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world, yet he pushed the button anyway.
The film received a lot of appreciation from the audience.