Netflix is looking into the inspirational life of late filmmaker Robert Downey Senior in its brand new film, Sr.
Created by documentarian Chris Smith (American Movie and Fyre), the one-off documentary captures the rebel spirit of the maverick filmmaker racing to complete his magnum opus – a documentary of his own life obtained from Smith’s footage of Downey Sr in his final years during his battle with Parkinson’s Disease at his home in New York City.
Downey Sr’s son and Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr features heavily throughout the film, which ends with an emotional scene with Sr on his deathbed as he lost his battle to the disease in July 2021.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Smith opens up about the incredibly “private” moment between the father and son.
“During the scene with Robert and his father, no one else was in the room at that time. Kevin [Ford] who I worked with and the producer, editor and cinematographer on the movie sort of set the cameras up in the room in a way that Robert didn’t even know that the second camera was there that was filming him and his dad,” he said.
Stressing the importance to give the family this privacy during these times, Smith added: “I think as you would hope they experienced those moments on their own. There wasn’t a film crew in the room at that time.”
On what he’d like viewers to take away from the film, which arrives on Netflix on Friday 2nd December, he continued: “I think there’s a real universality.
“You have two larger than life personalities in the movie with Robert Downey Jr and his dad, but I think that there’s something very relatable in terms of the experience that they go off and go through in terms of their relationship as a father and a son and his father’s decline that I think will connect with a lot of people.
“I think that anytime that we see something that has universality you hope there’s a reflection on your own life – that there’s some meaning that you can take away from it.”
Sr. will be released on Netflix on Friday 2nd December.
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