Robert Downey Jr & Wing Chun

[sihing]

Did anybody see today's Oprah episode, apparently they were interviewing Robert Downey Jr and his successes since being out of Jail and how he is doing now. I didn't see the episode but I heard about Downey's training with Eric Oram who is a Sifu Instructor under GM William Cheung(TWC) in Santa Monica, CA, and it was profiled on the show today and how Wing Chun has helped him clean himself up. Too bad I missed it, it would have been nice to see. If anyone gets a clip of the Wing Chun part let me know where you can download it. Here's a link to some of what happened on the show(text), http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200411/20041123/slide_20041123_105.jhtml .

James

[couch]

*cough* I saw it... *cough* ...laf.

Downey threw a lead-right jab at his Sifu who was in a parallel front stance(left) and Sifu Oram stepped forward with his left foot just to the blindside/outside of Downey's punch, pak sao'd and followed up with chain punches.

That was the clip!

Peace,
Couch

[KPM]

Originally posted by sihing
Did anybody see today's Oprah episode, apparently they were interviewing Robert Downey Jr and his successes since being out of Jail and how he is doing now. I didn't see the episode but I heard about Downey's training with Eric Oram who is a Sifu Instructor under GM William Cheung(TWC) in Santa Monica, CA, and it was profiled on the show today and how Wing Chun has helped him clean himself up. Too bad I missed it, it would have been nice to see. If anyone gets a clip of the Wing Chun part let me know where you can download it. Here's a link to some of what happened on the show(text), http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200411/20041123/slide_20041123_105.jhtml .

James


I saw it! The wife had Oprah on when I walked in just as they cut to the clip of Downey in Orams school. Wing Chun came off very well in that segment. Downey spoke highly of what he was learning and looked very good in his brief demo of some technique. It will be interesting to see if his training has truly helped him to the point that he can stay off of drugs, and whether we see him in any martial arts roles doing Wing Chun when he gets back to his a acting career.

Keith

[Jeff Bussey]

Keith,
The first step is admitting that you were watching Oprah and not your wife.
:D

From the link, it says that he's training 6 days a week. Did the show say anything about how long he's been training?

J

[Chum Kil]

I think I will not want to be associated with TWC anymore, Robert Downey Jr. what a jerk.

[edward]

I think i'll go after Martha stewart....heheheh

[Phil Redmond]

Originally posted by Chum Kil
I think I will not want to be associated with TWC anymore, Robert Downey Jr. what a jerk.
It seems as though he's trying to get his life back together through WC. Does that make him a jerk?
PP

[Sandman2[Wing Chun]]

Originally posted by sihing
Did anybody see today's Oprah episode, apparently they were interviewing Robert Downey Jr and his successes since being out of Jail and how he is doing now. I didn't see the episode but I heard about Downey's training with Eric Oram who is a Sifu Instructor under GM William Cheung(TWC) in Santa Monica, CA, and it was profiled on the show today and how Wing Chun has helped him clean himself up. Too bad I missed it, it would have been nice to see. If anyone gets a clip of the Wing Chun part let me know where you can download it. Here's a link to some of what happened on the show(text), http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200411/20041123/slide_20041123_105.jhtml .

James

Ok, that's just weird. Although I'm happy for anyone that can turn their life around from problems of that sort, and it's not too surprising to see people reach that through a study of wing chun. It's just bizzare to see it on The Oprah Winfrey Show...

Seems like Eric Oram might have quite a few celebraties training with him, did anyone see this article:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/players/10/18/workout1025/

[Chum Kil]

Originally posted by Phil Redmond
It seems as though he's trying to get his life back together through WC. Does that make him a jerk?
PP

No. He was a jerk prior (and I'm being very leinent here), and I'm willing to bet he will quit and be a jerk again. What I'm saying is he will not change, and if he does I still do not like the guy, never will.

[RedJunkRebel]

He was actually being interviewed on the local radio show out here in SoCal as well yesterday morning talking about how he was doing Wing Chun. Rolling into work and hearing Wing Chun mentioned on the radio was a pleasant surprise.

[SAAMAG]

So who here actually knows good ol' Robbie personally anyway to say how he was or wasn't? Do you know what his life was like aside from what's on the video cameras and from the press?

He's been on track to getting things back on track for a while now from what we hear...but like I said above...who really knows? Or cares for that matter.

The main thing is that wing chun got some press on a highly watched show...it may bring in more chickies to the classes too since we all know that only girls watch oprah, right? :D

[mortal]

He was recently a crackhead. Now he is marrying a hot producer he met a couple of months ago.
It amazes how celebs get to start over again and again and again and again. Doesn't she care he was a drug addict last month? Talking about giving the benefit of the doubt.

[Chum Kil]

It's all publicity.

[KPM]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jeff Bussey
[B]Keith,
The first step is admitting that you were watching Oprah and not your wife.
:D

---Ok! Ok! But I didn't select the channel, SHE did! :-) Did anyone see the show last week about the Brownie leader that went to swinger's clubs? :-)

From the link, it says that he's training 6 days a week. Did the show say anything about how long he's been training?

---I didn't hear the whole interview, so don't know. But like I said, his technique didn't look bad. He did tell Oprah that it was great stuff and that she should consider taking up Wing Chun as well. :-)

Keith

[anerlich]

My wife watched Oprah on a day home from work (not me, honest, I'm a Jerry Springer man myself).

Supposedly one of the characters on Sex in the City (which I don't watch either) was having man problems (apparently not unusual on this show), and another character said, "He's just not that into you".

So on Oprah they have some guy that wrote the script, a psychologist, and all these loser brain dead women quoted saying things like "I was dating this man that wasn't treating me right, until I saw that episode of SITC and heard that line, "He's just not that into you", and right then I realised I had to leave that b**tard and turn my life around". The same with women in the audience. And this went on for ten minutes with the psychologist giving these women advice (mine would have been "have a tubal ligation so you cannot pass on those genes"), and somehow keeping a straight face.

What idiots. Spend too much time watching that stuff, your brain will turn to mush.

[Matrix]

Originally posted by Chum Kil
I think I will not want to be associated with TWC anymore, Robert Downey Jr. what a jerk. If you reject any art, or any activity for that matter, because some "jerk" is involved, you probably won't be left with very many options...........if any.
Why allow your opinion of this person - whom you don't even know BTW - affect your thinking about the art?

[Jeff Bussey]

Hey Keith

---Ok! Ok! But I didn't select the channel, SHE did! :-) Did anyone see the show last week about the Brownie leader that went to swinger's clubs? :-)

Actually I did see that one but she was a girl guides leader and she was only trying to sell more cookies (those things are dam addictive). :D

---I didn't hear the whole interview, so don't know. But like I said, his technique didn't look bad. He did tell Oprah that it was great stuff and that she should consider taking up Wing Chun as well. :-)

That's cool. I guess as long as wing chun doesn't turn into the next Yoga it'll be alright. Mind you the females in some yoga classes ....:eek:

J

[planetwc]

My wife TiVO's oprah's show, so the other night I did see the Robert Downey show.

The eerie thing for me was that when they showed the very short clip that was the teaser for the longer segment on his martial art training, I looked at my wife and said--hey he's doing TWC and I'll bet that was Eric Oram in LA he trains with.

Lo and behold the longer segment comes on and it IS TWC he training and it is with Eric Oram! Good for him that he has the time to train 6 days a week.

Boy am I a WC nerd. :rolleyes: :D :p


Was the stretching stance work they did at the beginning something part of regular TWC training (some kind of chi kung work)?

Anyway, at least Downey did a pitch to Oprah to try out Wing Chun. Props for that at least.

[sihing]

I didn't see the clip then or yet, but I read a article about a NFL player that trains with Oram, and he talked about Meridian stretches that clear the meridian paths for the Chi to travel on. My Sifu teaches the method also, but I don't think it is the same as what GM Cheung teaches.

I think the whole thing on Oprah was a good thing for Wing Chun as a whole, any type of publicity is good, but when a famous person is practicing/training in it and says that is such a great activity to do, it benefits all of us associated with the art. Like I've said many times before, WC is more than just a fighting art, but a way of life...

James

[Bob8]

Sihing (James) wrote: "I think the whole thing on Oprah was a good thing for Wing Chun as a whole, any type of publicity is good, but when a famous person is practicing/training in it and says that is such a great activity to do, it benefits all of us associated with the art. "

I am not sure about that...

[anerlich]

I agree with James re celebrity endorsements, though caveat emptor still applies to the audience.

I have to say, though, that Ed O'Neill's (Al Bundy) and Maynard James Keenan's (Tool, the band) endorsement of BJJ is to me more impressive than Bob Downey's of anything ...

[old jong]

Celebrity endorsements mean nothing to me and I never watch that TV show but if Downey's influence can bring a few junkies to study any martial art and at least to try to do something positive in life,that's not a bad thing.

[old jong]

I also don't watch "Dr Phil" I swear!...

[anerlich]

I'll admit to watching Jerry Springer and Judge Judy. On rare occasions (honest!)

[sihing]

We just had a lady call about Wing Chun and she set up an appointment for tomorrow to try the class due to the Oprah/Downey show, so I think it is good for business as well as exposing something that is good for people(especially women) in general, due to the widespread violence out there in today's societies. Everyone should learn something whether it be WC or any other MA/self defence system, something is better than nothing....

James

[old jong]

Originally posted by anerlich
I'll admit to watching Jerry Springer and Judge Judy. On rare occasions (honest!)

Jerry Springer can make this forum seem civilised!...

[old jong]

Originally posted by sihing
We just had a lady call about Wing Chun and she set up an appointment for tomorrow to try the class due to the Oprah/Downey show, so I think it is good for business as well as exposing something that is good for people(especially women) in general, due to the widespread violence out there in today's societies. Everyone should learn something whether it be WC or any other MA/self defence system, something is better than nothing....

James

Was she a junkie?...;)

[GeneChing]

Robert Downey Jr. Opens Up About Life After Iron Man, Kung Fu Fighting and Managing a Menagerie in Dolittle (https://parade.com/972841/amyspencer/robert-downey-jr-iron-man/)
JANUARY 3, 2020 – 5:00 AM
By AMY SPENCER

https://static.parade.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Dr-Dolittle-Opener-FTR.jpg
(courtesy Universal)

When Robert Downey Jr. was preparing for his new role in Dolittle, a movie in which he plays a doctor who lives with a house full of animals—and talks with them—he began to wonder, “How does anyone relate to this guy?” And then he looked out the window of his home in Malibu, Calif., and saw his alpaca Fuzzy looking back at him.

In addition to his wife of 14 years, Susan, and their two kids, son Exton, 7, and daughter Avri, 5, Downey lives with dozens of animals they’ve taken in over the past 10 years. There are pigs (kunekunes, a New Zealand breed), Oreo cows (with that distinctive white belt), pygmy goats, a larger rescue goat named Cutie Boots, a bunch of chickens and two cats, Montgomery and D’Artagnan. “I was like, ‘Oh, yeah,’” he says with a laugh. “‘You’re completely surrounded by animals!’”

Today Downey, 54, is in the Venice office of his production company, Team Downey, which he founded with Susan, 46, in 2010. He’s dressed in a classically eccentric outfit: a black brocade suit over a Bruce Lee T-shirt and a pair of black suede high-top sneakers, all chosen yesterday, he says. “I’m a guy who lays out my clothes the night before. Eliminates morning confusion.” There’s certainly nothing confusing about Downey’s career: It’s full of iconic characters from pop culture and history, like Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chaplin and Iron Man. And now Downey is stepping into the shoes of another famous man in this month’s Dolittle (in theaters Jan. 17).

The new movie is born from the classic 1920s book series by Hugh Lofting, but Downey based his Dr. John Dolittle on a real Welsh physician from 19th century Wales named William Price. He was “a very, very odd character” who was into a “neo-druidic” movement that promoted connection among all creatures, says Downey.

The new film begins after the doctor loses his wife to a tragedy, leading him to develop a case of anxiety and agoraphobia. But when Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley) falls gravely ill and his help is needed to find a cure, Dolittle’s animals spur him into action because they know “it’s something he needs to do to clear up his traumatic past,” Downey says. Ultimately, he says, the film is about communication and empathy, “to seek to understand and to be understood.”

As seasoned an actor as he is, the role brought new challenges: Downey had to learn a Welsh accent for the part (“the hardest accent on Earth,” he says) with the help of a dialect coach. And he needed to act with an entirely computer-generated animal cast. Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Tom Holland, Craig Robinson, Selena Gomez, Octavia Spencer and others provide the voices of the brood, including Polynesia the macaw, Chee-Chee the gorilla, Yoshi the polar bear, Plimpton the ostrich, Dab-Dab the duck, Fleming the mouse and Barry the tiger.

Robert Downey’s Career Highs and Lows

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Downey with his father, filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., in 2008 (Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

Downey’s love of animals dates back to his childhood. “My dad always named our pets after directors…well, and one president,” remembers Downey. “So we had George Washington. Then we had [Stanley] Kubrick, we had [Preston] Sturges. Sturges and I were pretty close; he was a Yorkshire terrier.”

The actor was raised with his older sister, Allyson, in Manhattan and Queens, New York, by their father, Robert Downey Sr., an actor and filmmaker, and mother, Elsie, an actress, who died in 2014. Downey was introduced to moviemaking at a young age, precociously appearing in one of his father’s films at age 5. But along with his early exposure to filmmaking came an early exposure to drugs, as Downey famously smoked marijuana with his father at around 8 years old, planting the seeds for his later drug addiction.

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Downey with his mother, Elsie, in 2009 (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images)

In the mid-’70s, his parents divorced and he moved to various places, from Connecticut and upstate New York to Southern California and back. And as a young man, he had a run of odd jobs—at a shoe store, a sandwich shop and as a busboy—while also attending acting programs and auditioning for roles.

He’ll never forget being 17 and making $140 a week performing at the Geva Theatre in Rochester, New York. “I’m riding around on a 10-speed bike—it was like a $107 Panasonic, I think, and I could afford it ’cause it was bottom-tier. And I was listening on a Walkman to Phil Collins, just going, like, ‘Man, I’m really making something of my life here!’”

In those early years, “I had plenty of rejection,” he admits. But being raised in the city “makes you super-resilient,” a trait that kept him going. And two opposing forces—the drive he had to succeed in his career and the temptation to party—would prove to be a push and a pull for him for the next 20 years.

He did have some positive mentors during those days, including ’80s teen idol Matt Dillon. “He took me under his wing a little bit,” says Downey, who calls Dillon “one of the most well-read people I’ve ever met.” Downey also began working with other famed actors of his era, making an early name for himself in the 1980s alongside members of the so-called Brat Pack, the group of actors that loosely included Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Demi Moore and Ally Sheedy. He appeared in 1985’s Weird Science (“Anthony Michael Hall and I are still close,” he says), co-starred in The Pick-up Artist with Ringwald, then played cocaine-addicted party boy Julian in Less Than Zero alongside McCarthy, a role that both amplified his career and his drug habit.

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Downey with his oldest son, Indio, in 2011 (Beverly News/Shutterstock)

The next two decades brought both highs and lows. His starring turn in Chaplin (1992) earned him his first Academy Award nomination, and he had his son, Indio, now 26 (with his first wife of 12 years, Deborah Falconer); he also saw his drug addiction spiral, leading to multiple arrests, stints in jail and a state prison and stays at substance abuse treatment centers. But his determination to succeed prevailed as he hit more career milestones, nominated for both an Emmy (for his role as Ally’s love interest, Larry Paul, on TV’s Ally McBeal) and a second Oscar (for his role in the comedy Tropic Thunder). By the early 2000s, Downey got clean and fell in love, and before the close of the decade, he was offered a role that would change the course of his career: genius playboy Tony Stark in Iron Man.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

How Robert Downey Jr. Became Iron Man

As a child, Downey had read the Marvel Iron Man comic books—about a wealthy scientist who builds a high-tech suit of armor and becomes a crime-fighting superhero. “There’s been two times where I’ve gone into a feverish-almost-like-a-waking dream in prep for something,” says Downey. The first time was Chaplin, in which he went full “method,” immersing himself into the character of silent-film legend Charlie Chaplin and his world; the next was Tony Stark. “It’s not so much that I related to him, as much as I just presumed that it was my destiny to build this character around all of my experiences,” he says. The film became the seed of a franchise that continued, across more than a decade, through two Iron Man sequels and spawned the entire interconnected Marvel universe and four Avengers films that culminated in last April’s Avengers: Endgame—allegedly marking the end of the series and Tony Stark’s role.

Looking forward, he doesn’t know if Iron Man will ever rise again. “The war for me is over,” he says. Now he’s focused on the release of Dolittle and finding roles that can bring him that feverish excitement he lives for. “I personally have alighted to greener pastures,” he says.

One of those pastures is his latest project, hosting a new learning series called The Age of A.I., which launched on YouTube Originals in December. In it, Downey takes viewers into some of the most transformational technology in the history of humankind, noting how “artificial intelligence” is already changing lives—and has the potential to change the world.

As Downey embarks on the next phase of Team Downey, he’s making time to tend to his marriage and raise his young family.

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Downey with his wife, film producer Susan Downey, in 2019 (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

“We just genuinely love hanging out,” he says of his wife, whom he met on the set of his 2003 film Gothika, on which she was working as a producer. They were engaged six months after their first date and married in 2005. And they balance each other well. While he’ll be the one to get behind the wheel when they drive (“I’m giving her a break!” he insists), for anything having to do with the kids, “I defer to her,” he says. “I just wasn’t raised right, so chances are, I’m gonna have some caca take on things.”

At home, more of how they’re opposites emerges: “I’m a little more the domestic type; I could just talk to you about the drapes and recovering those chairs,” he says, pointing to the sunlit, sunken living room area of his office. “I love domestic maintenance; it just gets me off.” Whereas his wife, he says, gets too into her Team Downey to-do lists to care. “The machinations of her mind, it is astonishing—and horrifying—the sheer amount of data she is trying to process.”

Work has pulled away “the missus” today, which is what he calls her; she calls him “Downey, or Rob,” he says. Some people call him “Doctor,” though he doesn’t know why, and it has nothing to do with his latest movie role. Close family calls him Bobby, and those who call him “Bob” usually have a history with Downey’s father, though “if I run into Tom Hanks, he’ll be like, ‘Bob Downey!’” As his mind zips from one detail of his life and art to another and back like a pinball machine, you can’t help but wonder how he deals with the astonishing number of facts, details and data bouncing about his brain. “I don’t,” he says. “It’s like being in a hailstorm: You just put your hands up.”

To decompress from work, he and Susan go for walks, see live theater and spend time with their kids, who are home-schooled. They’ll play big block Jenga, Yeti in My Spaghetti and go for strolls along the sand to look for sea glass. Avri, the youngest, is into tumbling. Exton has been rotating through his Marvel action figures and is currently back to playing with his dad’s, but only “because he thinks I feel bad,” Downey says, laughing, “because I got, like, kicked off the team or something.” Some Saturday nights, the kids stay up late with Downey—which means that on Sundays, he’ll sleep in, work out, then do what his wife asks of him for the rest of the day, “as directed,” he says with a smile, “like an old limousine driver from the ’70s.”

Though he has gotten back into yoga, his training is otherwise singularly focused. “All I care about are Eastern martial arts,” says Downey, who practices wing chun kung fu three or more times a week and is now adding in weapons, like knives for attack drills, butterfly swords and sticks. But he’s clear it’s not about preparing for a real fight; it’s an art form to him as well as a spiritual practice. “It’s transcendent. It’s a huge meditation,” he says. “And it just happened to be the right thing for me.”

All of it is keeping him healthier in his mid-50s than he ever was in his 20s or 30s. And if he could change anything at all about his life? He laughs. “I mean, I might need to floss more?”

I was invited to a screener for Doctor Dolittle, and I was tempted but I'm too busy at the moment to crank out a review.

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLjKVTFFjqU

[GeneChing]

I wonder if Robert (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?33947-Robert-Downey-Jr-amp-Wing-Chun) met Weili (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71462-Zhang-Weili). That would be a cool photo op.


Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. attends UFC 248, big fan of Chinese martial art Wing Chun (https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1182161.shtml)
Source:Global Times Published: 2020/3/10 17:33:43 1

https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2020/2020-03-10/2bc008f1-7700-4466-8b39-128b9cc20145.jpeg
Robert Downey Jr. Photo: VCG

It seems Iron Man is a big fan of Chinese martial art Wing Chun. Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. was caught on camera showing off some of his Wing Chun moves during the bout between UFC Women's Strawweight champion Zhang Weili and former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248 on Saturday when he showed off some of his Wing Chun moves. On Monday Downey posted a video of himself at the event on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo along with a post in which he called the battle between the two a classic and congratulated both fighters. Chinese netizens were surprised to see that Downey has studied Wing Chun, which is based on traditional Southern Chinese martial arts. "Iron Man knows Wing Chun! If he had used Wing Chun to fight Thanos, it would have been much easier to beat the enemy," one netizen commented on Sina Weibo. Some netizens speculated that the star became interested in Chinese martial arts due to the release of this year's Ip Man 4: The Finale, a film about the legendary Win Chun master Yip Man. But actually, Downey has been studying Wing Chun for more than 10 years. He started practicing the martial art in 2003. According to a report from sohu.com, his teacher is one of the students of Zhang Zhuoqing, Yip's favorite pupil. According to the report, Downey practices Wing Chun three to five times each week and says that it successfully diverted his attention from drugs and helped him develop healthy habits. "Wing Chun cannot only help maintain your physique, but can make you more stable, more modest and more relaxed with others," he said. Zhang, who had successfully defended her title against Jedrzejczyk, replied to Downey on Sina Weibo, saying she hopes that he enjoyed the competition.