Watch: Robert Downey Jr. Was Right To Walk

Yesterday Robert Downey Jr. walked out on an interview while promoting the latest Avengers movie, Age of Ultron, and his role as billionaire inventor Tony Stark. And we think he was dead right.

In a filmed interview with Channel 4 reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Downey Jr. got visibly annoyed at the line of questioning that kept returning to his troubled past, called the interviewer ?kind of a schmuck? and put an end to the interview. Was it an overreaction? In our opinion, when someone insists on bringing up your former addiction issues they should consider themselves lucky that you just called them a schmuck and walked away.

The interview has gone viral. The movie is set to be the biggest release of the summer and Downey Jr. is the lead in one of the most popular franchises of all time. The Ironman actor is one of Hollywood’s highest earners. He is used to dealing with media intrusion. And there’s the little matter of his past when he wasn’t so much the main name on movie posters, and more likely to dominate tabloid headlines for his personal life.

However, despite issues with addiction and serving time, Downey Jr. has to all appearances turned his life around. He’s married to producer Susan Downey and is the go-to guy for guaranteeing your movie breaks box office records. Trawling through struggles he’s left behind him is bad manners. Especially when the interviewer was for the purpose of promoting a movie about superheroes and Downey Jr.’s character wears a flying robot suit most of the time. It’s fun, but it ain’t Chekhov. Also, talking about Downey Jr.’s drug troubles should be done on his own terms, not during a junket for a comic book movie.

Follow Jeanne Sutton on Twitter @jeannedesutun