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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Annabel Nugent

Alejandro González Iñarritu is still hurt by Robert Downey Jr’s 2015 response to his superhero comments

Getty

Birdman director Alejandro González Iñarritu is still hurt by a comment made by Robert Downey Jr in 2015.

While promoting his Oscar-winning film Birdman, Iñarritu said that superhero films were a form of “cultural genocide”.

He said: “I don’t respond to those characters. They have been poison because the audience is so overexposed to plot and explosions and s*** that it doesn’t mean nothing about the experience of being human.”

Downey Jr – who famously portrayed Tony Stark aka Iron Man in the Marvel Cienmatic Universe – weighed in on Iñarritu’s comments a year later during an interview to promote Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The actor’s response was controversial, with Downey Jr stating that he “respects the heck out of” the director, but mocked Iñarritu’s heritage.

“For a man whose native tongue is Spanish to be able to put together a phrase like ‘cultural genocide’ just speaks to how bright he is,” said Downey Jr.

In a new interview with IndieWire, Iñarritu – whose forthcoming Netflix film Bardo premiered at the Venice Film Festival – reflected on the actor’s comments.

Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark in ‘Avengers: Endgame' (Marvel Studios)

“It was like, ‘Oh, you guys from your banana country,’” Iñarritu said. “If I were from Denmark or Sweden, I might be seen as philosophical, but when you’re Mexican and you say things, you’re pretentious.”

The Independent has contacted a representative of Downey Jr for comment.

Bardo is a semi-autobiographical fantasy-drama about Silverio, a Mexican journalist and documentarian who has left home to make a career for himself in California, where he begins to question his life decisions.

The film is set for a theatrical release on 18 November, and will stream on Netflix from 16 December.

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