Robert Downey Jr. Says Influencer Culture Is Not Future of Celebrity

Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t think influencer culture is endgame. 

In fact, while influencers grow more ubiquitous across the pop culture zeitgeist, the Marvel actor still doesn’t see them changing the celebrity landscape in the long run.

“When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,’” Robert said during the April 26 episode of Conversations for our Daughters podcast. “I go, ‘I don’t know what world you’re living into, but I think that that is absolute horses–t.’”

Though the 61-year-old is aware that today’s landscape for being an up-and-coming star today is much different than the one he grew up in.

“In the late ’70s, early ‘80s,” he said, “there was this this sense that the competition wasn’t so stiff that you shouldn’t even bother trying. Whereas nowadays, people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves.”

However, he doesn’t necessarily “look at that as a negative thing,” he said. “I just look at it as more like the challenge for individuation is being upped.”