Downey thrills fans talking 'Sherlock' at Comic-Con
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Jude Law, left, as Dr. John Watson and Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes in "Sherlock Holmes": Film critic Barry Paris says to look for a sequel.
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July in San Diego is Robert Downey Jr. season, when thousands of fans gather to bask in his presence.
This year, he put on a show at the "Sherlock Holmes" panel at Comic-Con International, playing multiple roles: literary expert, crowd-pleaser, wiseguy, ringmaster.
He was in San Diego to promote two films, the Christmas debut of "Sherlock Holmes," Guy Ritchie's biggest film yet, and the much-anticipated "Iron Man 2," a sequel to the blockbuster that made Downey a box-office superhero.
Downey did not allow "Sherlock Holmes" to take a back seat to the man in the metal suit. Instead of the usual introduction by a moderator, Downey bound onto the stage and up to the lectern unannounced.
The actor most associated with Sherlock Holmes is Basil Rathbone, who played Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective in a series of films in the 1930s and '40s. Many other actors have tackled the role, on stage and screens big and small:
• Charlton Heston: "The Crucifer of Blood" (1991, TV)
• Edward Woodward: "Hands of a Murderer" (1990, TV)
• Michael Caine: "Without a Clue" (1988)
• Jeremy Brett: "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1984-94, TV)
• Tom Baker: "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1982, TV miniseries)
• Frank Langella: "Sherlock Holmes: The Strange Case of Alice Faulkner" (1981, TV/stage play)
• Roger Moore: "Sherlock Holmes in New York" (1976)
• Douglas Wilmer: "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother" (1975)
• Peter Cushing: "Sherlock Holmes" (1968-69, TV); "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959)
• John Neville: "A Study in Terror" (1965)
• Christopher Lee: "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace," among others (1962)
• Ronald Howard: "Sherlock Holmes" (1954-55, TV)
• Raymond Massey: "The Speckled Band" (1931)
• John Barrymore: "Sherlock Holmes" (1922)
• William Gillette: "Sherlock Holmes" (1916)
Sources: Los Angeles Times, imdb.com
He immediately began to riff on his character, the director, co-stars . . . working the audience into a frenzy.
"One hundred and twenty-two years ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gave birth to a character," Downey began. "He was probably the first superhero. He was an intellectual superhero. And he was also the first Western martial artist, I'm told ... "
He paused and smiled. Cheering ensued. Downey took a moment to say, "This is so much fun. I love you guys," then got back to "selling soap," as he calls it.
"He's one of the most recognizable images, icons, names on Earth, so much so that most people think, thought, that Sherlock Holmes was a real guy." Somehow, Downey said, it hadn't occurred to anyone to resurrect the character for a 21st-century audience.
"I thought, 'Why hadn't they figured it out yet? [Then, in a deep voice:] Casting. [Pause for applause.] And Guy Ritchie at the helm. Because what we have in Guy Ritchie is a bad-ass gentleman, Englishman, who understands how to reinvigorate something like this. We have the ever-delectable and seriously gifted Rachel McAdams, playing Irene Adler, the only woman who ever worked Sherlock like a rib. And, of course, Jude Law as Watson. I cannot wait for you to see some footage. Do you want to see some footage? Let her rip!"
The footage showed a ripped Downey and a trim Jude Law in a believable Victorian London.
Few people familiar with film versions of Conan Doyle's sleuth and his constant companion think of the dashing Law when they think of Dr. John Watson, who is most often portrayed as a doddering older man. But the Watson that Conan Doyle described was a skilled physician and a heroic war veteran who was a crack shot.
"The more we looked into the lexicon, the four novels and the dozens and dozens of short stories, the more we realized that Sherlock had been misrepresented in a lot of the previous and much-loved televised and filmed entertainment versions," Downey said. "I think some of it was just a constraint of the times, because he was very kind of liberal and trippy and all that, but also I think budget, too. ... We really pretty much went right back to the source. That was how we reinvigorated it; we decided to change less than had been changed previously."
Some moments, admittedly, come from just a line or two -- such as Holmes' martial arts skills -- or one story, like McAdams' character, who appeared only in "A Scandal in Bohemia."
McAdams was part of the panel with Downey, his wife and producer, Susan, and fellow producers Joel Silver and Lionel Wigram. The audience was so enamored of rock-star Downey that he kept trying to throw the ball into McAdams' court during Q&A time.
A fan said how much he loved her for appearing in the Canadian TV comedy "Slings & Arrows," then directed a question to Downey.
"If [McAdams] rocks so hard, why doesn't someone ask her a damn question?" Downey demanded.
So McAdams blushed and talked about her character.
"She's different than most women in the 1800s. She's very independent, very active. She kind of lives in the underworld and you know there's only one story where Irene is introduced, 'A Scandal in Bohemia,' and it's a really fun story to occur in [the canon]. She happens to beat Sherlock at his own game and it's the first time a woman had ever done that. So we developed this kind of strange love affair. ... And we played on that. We're very competitive with one another and we're trying to outsmart one another all the time and yet trying to have this oddly normal relationship, which is impossible."
When Downey's fight scenes and skills as a martial artist came up again, he used the occasion to point out how McAdam's character, Adler, gets the best of Holmes.
"Look, I'm not trying to incite a riot right now, but I could windmill through the lot of you one right after the other. I can do all this stuff, and Sherlock can, and Adler just lays waste to me, seemingly at will. What's that about?" he said, only half joking.
Missing from the panel was Mark Strong, in recent films such as "Body of Lies" and "The Young Victoria," who plays the villainous Lord Blackwood in "Sherlock Holmes." Also MIA was Law, but his mustache as Watson left an impression on Downey.
"When we were at the wrap party ... Jude came down and he had promptly shaved his mustache, having worn it for four months. And he was strangely unrecognizable as himself.
"That guy knows how to rock a 'stache," Downey said.
And Downey knows how to rock a big room.
First Published December 25, 2009 12:00 am
