Robert Downey Jr flares up as interviewer pokes at his dark past

Hollywood A-lister Robert Downey Jr. is undeniably one of the most sought-after stars in Tinseltown owing to his iconic Iron Man portrayal.

And while the actor seems to be filled to the core with wit and positivity, there is one thing that manages to push even his buttons: his dark past.

An interview of the Dolittle actor turned ugly after the interviewer started digging into his controversies from his dark past including drug abuse, jail time and shaky ties with father Robert Downey Sr.

The actor has kept his past strictly concealed but British journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy for Channel News 4, brought out the beast again.

While it was reiterated that the interview, held in 2015, would strictly encircle Avengers: Age of Ultron, things started heating up when the interviewer asked about his comment given to New York Times following his custody.

"You can't go from a USD 2000 a night hotel suite to a penitentiary, understand it and come out a liberal. I couldn't even tell you what a liberal so therein lies the answer to your question,” Robert retorted.

He was further asked if he is still a liberal after he was released from prison, to which he replied: "Are we promoting a movie?”

"I'm certainly not going to back-pedal on anything that I have said but I wouldn't say I'm a Republican, a Liberal or a Democrat... that's the nice thing, you can have opinions and they kind of change and flow,” he added.

When Krishnan further stressed on pushing the interview around Robert, he replied: “You have as much time as anyone else will,” before signaling his team to conclude.

Krishnan soon shot back saying they still have a few minutes before the interview can wrap up. Robert responded saying: “Your foot is starting to jump a little bit. You better get to your next question."

The last straw for the actor was the question revolving his drug abuse problem that had been a thing of the past, as immediately after hearing, he retorted: “What are we doing?” and walked out.

After the interviewer apologized, Robert gave him a pat on the back and said: “You seem okay. It's getting a bit Diane Sawyer and you're kind of a schmuck."