Before Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr.'s career was over. He was blacklisted in Hollywood after struggling with drug addiction back in the '90s. In 1996, he was convicted for possession and an unloaded firearm. He also missed multiple court-ordered drug tests until he was sentenced to three years in prison in 1999.
Then while on parole in 2001, the Sherlock Holmes actor was found barefoot, walking around Culver City, California. He was then arrested on suspicion of being under the influence. He was also fired from his role on the TV series Ally McBeal, as well as other film and theater projects.
As a result, the MCU star went broke. But instead of being sent back to prison, he was ordered to go to rehab. It was his wife, Susan Levin that ultimately became his "miracle." Here's how.
How Did Robert Downey Jr. Meet His Wife Susan Levin?
Levin was not into Downey Jr. at first. "Not even a little bit," she told Harper's Bazaar of their first encounter on the set of Gothika in 2003. "The main thing I remember about meeting him was thinking how strange he was." During that interview in 2009, the producer also said that she still saw thought her husband was "very strange," noting that "He's this incredible amalgam of contradictory traits that is never boring. He's completely eccentric but grounded. He's someone who has lived so much life yet has almost a Peter Pan kind of never-grow-up quality."
When asked about her entry into the actor's troubled life, Levin admitted that she didn't think she'd end up with the movie star at all. "I honestly didn't know anyone who had drug problems," she shared to the publication, adding that she was "very structured, with firm boundaries" and had always known "pretty much from age 12," that she'd work in the film business. "I was never a girl who thought about getting married," she continued. "Being in a relationship wasn't my priority."
Downey Jr. echoed her initial sentiments on marriage. "When I used to hear, like 'It's my parents' 175th wedding anniversary,' I used to think, 'No. I can't. I just can't.' I used to have a bit of disdain for partnership, and I thought that I had carved my path in the other direction, but..." He then started to laugh.
How Did Robert Downey Jr.'s Wife Susan Levin Save His Life?
When asked about her reputation as "the Miracle That Saved Robert Downey Jr.," Levin just shrugged it off. But Downey Jr. had some explanation about her influence on him. "I guess the only way to explain it is that I've become more like her. I'm still trying to figure out what happened," he confessed. "Whatever I was hungry for when I met Susan, I couldn't have known how much more satisfying what I got would be."
Despite Levin's initial doubts about the actor, sparks flew fast between them because of her "extreme naivete and ignorance" about substance abuse. "There were a lot of things that I was ignorant about that I have since become educated on," she explained. "I think there's something about running toward what scares you," referring to the contrast between her clean-cut history and Downey Jr.'s dark past.
"I don't have a history of making bad choices," said the co-president of Dark Castle Entertainment. "And if my parents had any reservations — whether they were scared about [his being] an actor or an addict or that he'd gone to prison or had a kid and an ex-wife, the whole shebang of things I claimed I would never want in a guy, and add some new things to it — they never shared them with me. They saw how happy I was."
Levin added that she got to know the good side of her future husband before they became an official couple. "Also, the guy I met was not that person," she continued. "He was clean and sober — completely professional when he was working, and then, in the off hours, he was just a fun guy." She didn't even think twice when the actor proposed to her. "More than anything, I never doubted it. There was something in my gut that knew really quickly. I knew three months in that this was it," she recalled. However, she gave him an ultimatum before pursuing their romance.
​​​​​​​
"I did meet Darth Vader, for like a minute," Levin said of Downey Jr.'s then-ongoing drug use. "Right after the movie wrapped, and I said immediately, 'This isn't gonna work.' I made it clear that to stay with me, nothing could happen." In July 2003, the actor finally decided to stay sober. He stopped at a Burger King on the Pacific Coast Highway and threw his drugs in the ocean.
​​​​​​​"I think he saw what we had," said the executive producer about her husband's decision. "There was something magical there, something we couldn't put our finger on. He always says that we became this third thing when we got together — something that neither of us could have become by ourselves — and I think that's true."