Robert Downey Jr. gets candid about addiction, late father on Netflix: 'Nothing is off limits'

NEW YORK – Robert Downey Jr. could be our next therapist.

In his tear-jerking new documentary "Sr." (now streaming on Netflix), the "Iron Man" actor unpacks his affectionate yet complicated relationship with his late father, irreverent filmmaker Robert Downey Sr.

"Welcome to our 3:00 grief group," Downey announced at a screening of the movie at New York Film Festival in October. "I'm inviting you to hopefully not feel like this film is about me and my dad, but about that crazy, impossible Gordian Knot that is family and dysfunction and art, and trying to make sense of it all."

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"Sr." follows Downey Jr. as he sets out to make a movie about his ailing father with the help of director Chris Smith (2018’s "Fyre"). Downey Sr., who died last year at 85 after a long fight with Parkinson’s disease, features prominently throughout the doc as he recounts his career as an independent filmmaker, making offbeat comedies such as 1966’s "Chafed Elbows" and 1972’s "Greaser's Palace." It also shows how Downey Jr. got his start acting in many of his father’s projects, making his big-screen debut at age 5 in 1970’s "Pound."

But the doc’s most emotional moments are conversations between father and son as Downey Jr. reckons with how his dad’s struggles with drugs influenced his own addiction battles. Later, Downey Jr. keeps the camera rolling as he visits his bedridden father for one of their final conversations, joined by his son Exton, 10.

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"We had this mantra, which was, 'Always be shooting,'" Smith said in an interview. "Unless you're told to turn the camera off, our job is to be documenting it. Robert would always make sure that his dad felt comfortable with things, but before his health declined, (Robert Downey Sr.) made it very clear that this was something he wanted to be part of the film. And if you know Sr., I think you could appreciate that."

Speaking at New York Film Festival, Downey Jr., 57, said it was important to not shy away from the more difficult discussions about life and death in the documentary.

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"We knew we had to get real," Downey explained. "This can't be some nepotistic, controlled retrospective – this is not that kind of party. This needs to transcend that. Documentary film is a very different bar than even a narrative, so we knew we had to trust each other and go to places that any publicist would say 'Never!'"

Smith says he was pleasantly surprised by the younger Downey's willingness to open up.

Just before shooting started, "Robert said, 'Nothing is off limits,'" Smith recalls. "That kind of set the tone for the entire project. Robert grew up with cameras around all the time – his dad was always filming – so it was very natural for them to have us around. But it wasn't what I expected. You don't see a window like that often into people's lives, especially bigger name celebrities. There was something very refreshing about the candidness between Robert and his dad."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Robert Downey Jr. gets 'real,' honors dad in Netflix documentary 'Sr.'