‘Sr.’ Director Chris Smith Found Himself Following Robert Downey Sr.’s Lead, For The Film And Beyond – Contenders Documentary

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While crafting the documentary Sr. chronicling the life of writer, director and actor Robert Downey Sr., filmmaker Chris Smith found himself, much like Downey’s films themselves, setting aside advance notions and following where the story took him. “It started as a portrait of an artist, and it changed into a look at a relationship between a father and a son, and evolved into a meditation on life,” Smith said during a panel for the Netflix movie at Deadline’s Contenders Documentary event. “The thing that we returned to was, ‘Let’s try to abandon any preconceived notions or thoughts about what this should be and try to let the process inform what the movie is,’ which I think was very much in the spirit of of the way that Sr.

operated.” RELATED: Contenders Documentary — Deadline’s Complete Coverage Smith noted that Downey’s son Robert Downey Jr. – who steered Smith toward telling his father’s story and actively participates throughout the film – had warned him that the maverick auteur was a master of deflection when it came to probing questions about his life, perspective and psyche, which proved challenging during the filmmaking process. “That was the challenge of the movie,” said Smith. “We asked [Downey Jr.] ‘Who is this guy?’ And he’s like, ‘I’ll never know.’ Every question was met with a deflection, whether it was from us or from Robert.

But I think through that and through time, and just spending time with somebody that you start to get the essence of the person, and I think that was the important part.” Smith is glad that he persevered and was able to get some degree of sharper focus on Downey Sr., who died in 2021 shortly after filming. “It’s interesting: Had we not spent that time with him at that point, it