Robert Downey Jr. is not buying the idea that social media fame is a clean replacement for old-school movie stardom. On the Conversations for our Daughters podcast, the Oscar winner gave a blunt read on the influencer economy, calling it “absolute horseshit” to say influencers are the inevitable “stars of the future.”

That does not mean he is dismissing the whole field. Downey’s point was more specific, and more interesting: the barrier to visibility has collapsed, but the challenge of becoming someone distinct has only become harder.

Downey on fame that starts with a phone

The Iron Man actor said modern celebrity can now be built with very little infrastructure.

“Nowadays people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves,” Downey said. “I don’t look at that as a negative thing. I just look at it as more like the challenge for individuation is being upped.”

He framed the issue around younger audiences, specifically in the United States.

“Hopefully the [larger] part of the youth of, let’s just call it America for locality’s sake, is gonna say, ‘Yeah, but that’s not my thing. I want to go do something, I’m going to make something, I want to build something, I want to educate myself and I want to have more inputs, so whatever my output is, it isn’t just a self-aggrandizing kind of influencer-type thing,’” he continued.

That is a sharp line from someone who is hardly operating outside the attention economy. Downey has 58.1 million Instagram followers, boosted in no small part by his years as Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

He is also heading back into Marvel’s orbit as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, which is set for theaters on Dec. 18.

“I think that that is absolute horseshit”

Downey was most direct when discussing the idea that influencers are destined to become the dominant stars of tomorrow.

“When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,’ I go, ‘I don’t know what world you’re living in, but I think that that is absolute horseshit,’” he said.

He also connected the subject to his own family, saying his 14-year-old son had become interested in influencer culture through gaming.

“[My 14-year-old son] kinda got caught up in this whole influencer thing, and next thing you know, it’s like, ‘Hey, if you like the way I’m playing this video game, do you wanna send me a donation?’ And really, it becomes a religion,” Downey said.

Then came the line that will probably travel fastest, because the internet does enjoy being told about itself.

“So there’s something about the influencers today that are almost like the Evangelical hucksters of the information age,” he said.

Still, Downey made room for nuance. He said the current media landscape is “new territory,” describing it as “a little bit of a frontier,” and added that he does not want to reduce every influencer to the same stereotype.

“I don’t really have a judgment on it,” he said. “I also know when I am promoting a film now I’ve gotten to know a few of these influencers, and I find many of them grounded, accomplished, cool people.”

Why he keeps some distance online

Despite his own huge following, Downey said he tries “not to get too deep down the rabbit hole” because “I don’t wish to be consumed.”

He also pushed back on the idea that casual-feeling celebrity posts are necessarily authentic just because they look spontaneous.

“I know, like people say, ‘Robert, they just love it when you’re just kind of like seeming off the cuff, and they’re getting a glimpse into your life.’ And I go, ‘But yeah, but I’d be manufacturing that aspect for them, so it’s B.S.,’” he said.

Downey has watched the shift happen in real time. He recalled Jon Favreau tweeting from the stage when they brought the teaser for Iron Man to Comic-Con, an early sign that audiences were no longer just receiving studio marketing from a distance.

“I saw the audience… This is the new hue where the audience is going to feel like they’re on the steering committee of this thing,” Downey said. “Ok, so that’s the new landscape.”

For Downey, that landscape is not going away. But he is clearly skeptical of mistaking reach for craft, or engagement for the kind of screen presence that built his own career. In an industry now trying to turn every metric into a casting argument, that distinction still matters.