Robert Downey Jr: Davos is ‘celebrity function of our future,’ world should ‘act as a single mind’

Robert Downey Jr. says the world should “act as a single mind” while taking cues from “the high-status celebrity function of our future — our planet” in Davos, Switzerland, each year.

Marvel’s “Iron Man” told CNBC this week that elites who gather annually at The World Economic Forum have the power to save the planet if enough people realize its importance.

“Davos, in and of itself, is so critical,” he said Wednesday of the invitation-only event. “It is the high-status celebrity function of our future — our planet. But it’s still, I’m gonna have lunch with Khalil and I saw Marissa on the slopes and she told me there’s gonna be a little Salon after-party. And I think there’s a new outcome desired here. We really want to get down to the nitty-gritty now and say ’we can all do this and it sounds good. And now we need to really start thinking about what the next steps are and how we’re going to activate each other.’ I can be a great force multiplier but we have to connect.”

The Hollywood celebrity added that the event’s business leaders, politicians, academics, media personalities, and other attendees understand that “this period of time has enforced the reality that we are all deeply and intimately connected, and we have to act as a single mind as often as possible.”

Mr. Downey Jr’s. optimism was also heightened by the election of President Biden.

“We’ve been prone in the West over here to be very personality-based and now we’re going back to principle, and that takes a lot of discipline,” the actor said of the newly elected Democrat. “I was very pleased to see our commander-in-chief say to his entire Cabinet: ’You are all to treat each other with respect from day one, or I’m gonna have a problem with you.’ Now, that’s good den-mothering, but it also is, again, goes back to common sense. I think we tend to fall out of step with principled behavior and then the cavalcade of character defects start rearing their ugly heads.”