Robert Downey Jr has irons in the fire

A HALF-SMOKED cigar rests in an ashtray alongside a half-empty pitcher of what appears to be a protein shake.

Quite the contrast, but as Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr points out, he's enjoying the cigar far more than the health shake he's been trying to force down his throat for an hour.

"This is shit," he says taking a gulp, before breaking into a bright smile and plonking himself down playfully in an armchair.

The drink may not be crash hot, but then again, neither was the 43-year-old's life a little more than a decade ago.

From his drug abuse to the consequent jail time, Downey's life was a mess, a far cry from the "together" man traipsing around the globe promoting his latest turn as billionaire industrialist and genius inventor Tony Stark in action thriller, and original Marvel comic, Iron Man.

Asked if he'd been misunderstood, the father-of-one shrugs.

"I don't know . . . I think I have been misunderstood and understood just like anybody," he says.

"Pick out a name of anyone you know and there are times when things aren't what they seem and what I have noticed now is that my life is pretty simple and together and I am not in the middle of any desperate struggle; some of that is just a function of age. Some of this stuff just takes time and you get caught up in something and you have to go through it."

While headlines still hint at his bad boy past, Downey scoffs at those types of assumptions, as does his producer wife, Susan Levin.

"If you want to make my wife laugh her arse off you need to just read those types of newspaper headlines," he grins. "It's just ridiculous, that notion, because that's not who I am today. It's something that happened last century."

Looking out over Sydney Harbour, Downey recalls the last time he made the pilgrimage down under, travelling with Levin while she produced the doomed Paris Hilton vehicle, House of Wax.

The star enjoys the laid-back Australian way of life and our film-making heavyweights, including his good mate Mel Gibson.

The pair met more than 18 years ago while working on action comedy Air America. Such is their friendship that Gibson paid Downey's insurance bond for 2003's The Singing Detective, when studios were nervous about having the actor work on their film.

Downey, who secured an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the title role of 1992 film Chaplin, says he instantly thought of his friend while flying into Sydney.

"Maybe part of it is being here (Australia) but I was just thinking about him this morning and am really looking forward to having a coffee with him because it's always fascinating to find out what's going on, on planet Gibson," he says.

"He is always up to something cool . . . He is pretty much living the life of Ryan and that's the truth."

While 52-year-old Gibson's drunken anti-Semitic rant landed him in hot water last year, Downey says the dual Academy Award winner has lost little support in Hollywood.

"I think anybody would be happy to work with him and I just think that he can pretty much write his own ticket," he says.

Downey smiles as he recalls a life lesson he learnt through Gibson. After their time on Air America, and just before Gibson's next role in Hamlet, executives were telling him he should try his hand at directing, an idea Gibson shunned.

Now his strangely intriguing directing flair behind the camera has captivated audiences around the world with the likes of Braveheart, Apocalypto and The Passion of the Christ.

"Through him (Gibson) I have just seen the remarkable potential to get yourself out of a way of being perceived. He was like, 'I don't want to be a director' and then he broadened his horizons and has been so much more successful as a director than he has an actor and who ever would have thought that was possible?" Downey says.

Working opposite some of the world's most glamorous women is all in a day's work for the star, but he admits he had to turn on the

charm to lure Gwyneth Paltrow into the role of his sexy personal assistant and love interest Pepper Potts in Iron Man.

The film revolves around Stark, CEO of US Government top weapons contractor Stark Industries, and how his carefree life of fast cars, celebrity status and hot women is stripped away after he's captured in the Middle East.

As the interview comes to an end Downey's attention again turns to Gibson and his desires to work with him. "I think he and I would make an interesting partnership – we would have a ball."

Iron Man opens today