Few people understand the weight and complexity of modern fame quite like Robert Downey Jr. The Oscar-winning actor has built a decades-long iconic career spanning everything from critically adored prestige projects like Oppenheimer to pop culture-defining global blockbusters like The Avengers franchise. While Downey climbed to A-list status through the traditional Hollywood pipeline, a growing share of today’s rising stars first built massive fanbases and name recognition on social media before stepping into mainstream entertainment.
Two of this year’s Grammy nominees for Best New Artist, Addison Rae and Alex Warren, earned widespread fame for their TikToks long before they launched their music careers. Even breakouts in film and television trace their roots to viral social content: some of the most buzzed-about new voices in filmmaking, including Talk to Me directing duo Danny and Michael Philippou, and 19-year-old Kane Parsons, who is helming A24’s upcoming Backrooms feature, first went viral on YouTube before breaking into Hollywood.
But according to Downey, the widespread assumption that influencers will be “the stars of the future” is “absolute horseshit.” During a recent appearance on the podcast Conversations for our Daughters, Downey spoke candidly about modern influencer culture. He acknowledged that fame has become far more accessible to everyday people thanks to social media, but that this accessibility does not mean influencers will ever replace long-standing, traditional celebrity status.
“Nowadays, people can build a celebrity persona without ever doing much besides rolling a camera on themselves,” Downey said. “I don’t look at that as a negative thing. I just look at it as more like the bar for what makes someone a truly distinct, memorable public figure has been raised.”
“When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,’ I go, ‘I don’t know what world you’re living in, but I think that that is absolute horseshit,’” he added.
Gen Z’s influencer aspirations
Downey may not be won over by the collective personality-driven fame of influencer culture, but younger generations overwhelmingly disagree with his take. In a 2023 survey, 57% of Gen Z respondents reported that they want to pursue a career as an influencer.
