Movies Robert Downey Jr. peed in character on Tropic Thunder set, according to Danny McBride He didn’t break character until he did the DVD commentary. By Wesley Stenzel Published on April 3, 2024 10:30PM EDT Robert Downey Jr. played a ridiculous method actor in Tropic Thunder — and maintained his on-screen persona so intensely that it followed him into the bathroom. In a new interview with GQ, fellow Tropic Thunder costar Danny McBride revealed that he heard the Iron Man actor relieving himself on the set of Ben Stiller’s Hollywood satire. “I guess during one of the takes they had left Downey’s mic on and so I’m sitting up there and I’m like, ‘Oh s---, I can hear what he’s saying,'” McBride said. “He was talking to people, and he was in character the whole time. And then I even watched him walk back to his trailer, and saw it from down there and he was talking to himself.” McBride went on to explain that Downey said “I’m going to go drain the snake, I’m going to go drain the snake” en route to the facilities. “He made up a song about how was going to go piss in character for no one else’s benefit except for his own,” the Righteous Gemstones actor said. Robert Downey Jr. and Danny McBride in 'Tropic Thunder'. DreamWorks/ Everett Downey played Kirk Lazarus, a white Australian actor whose preposterous commitment to his craft leads him to don Blackface for the movie-within-the-movie Tropic Thunder. In Daniel Day-Lewis-like fashion, Lazarus remains in character as the Black supporting player Lincoln Osiris for the entire duration of the shoot — and, adding another layer of method acting madness to the affair, Downey stayed in character as Lazarus between takes on the Tropic Thunder set. The result was Robert Downey Jr. staying in character as Kirk Lazarus, who himself was staying in character as Lincoln Osiris, meaning Downey was talking to himself in the bathroom as if he was an eccentric Australian poorly imitating a Black American. Downey was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Tropic Thunder at the 2009 Oscars, but ultimately lost to Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. This year, Downey won the Oscar in the same category for a different Nolan movie, Oppenheimer. Watch the full GQ interview with McBride above. Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more. Related content: Robert Downey Jr. thanks his 'terrible childhood' during his first Oscar win for Oppenheimer Robert Downey Jr. wanted to play Scarecrow in Batman Begins Robert Downey Jr. jokes that Oppenheimer success has been 'a terrible tragedy' for introvert Christopher Nolan