Robert Downey Jr. got in shape because he got sick

Robert Downey Jr. got in shape because he got sick

Robert Downey Jr. got in shape because he got sick.

The 44-year-old actor has had to get fit for his action-packed roles in ‘Iron Man 2’ and ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and although he has been exercising regularly an illness he picked up in Japan kick-started his weight loss.

He is quoted as saying : “I was in Japan promoting ‘Iron Man’, and I went to a restaurant where I contracted a parasite and got really sick for three days.

"I started losing weight and thought to myself, 'Hey this is a nice jump-start!' It just gave me a nice little head-start with the first five pounds and then I kept going until I was thin, I felt as though I may float away."

Robert insists it’s important for him to be in prime condition for the roles because he has been asking the directors of both movies – Guy Ritchie on ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and Jon Favreau who is helming ‘Iron Man 2’ – to increase his stunt duties.

He said: "The action's certainly got bigger on ‘Iron Man 2’ that’s because I went to do 'Sherlock Holmes', which was a real adventure.

"So coming back to ‘Iron Man 2’ I really challenged our stunt team to get our hands a little more dirty because I was still kind of into that… I love it so much.

"There is no better day that I can have than one where I beat people up or get thrown around. I just love it.”
photowenn.com