Before he was an award-winning actor, Robert Downey Jr. struggled to make it in the retail industry.
Speaking to film critic Leonard Maltin at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Downey revealed that he was fired from his retail job – not long after he was hired.
“Well, I worked at a sandwich shop. I worked at a shoe store, but I had sticky fingers and I got fired after two weeks,” he shared.
The actor explained that he worked there before “closed-circuit cameras where they monitor who might be sitting.”
“I was not very good at it,” he admitted.
Downey previously spoke about being fired from the gig in his Wired interview in 2023, revealing that the shoe store was actually his first job.
“My first job was working at the Indian Walk Shoe Store on Broadway and 83rd Street. I made it about 10 shifts before I was fired for my sticky fingers,” he said.
Speaking to Maltin, the Iron Man star said he also did some hospitality work in clubs and at a Santa Monica Thrifty’s before Hollywood came calling.
“I made it to busboy, but I didn’t really have the panache to be a waiter, I was told, so I had to resort to theatre.”
And the rest is history.
