Robert Downey Jr says going to prison was ‘the worst thing that ever happened to me’

The 58-year-old was catapulted into stardom in the 1980s in films such as Weird Science, Johnny Be Good, and Back To School.

However the success took a toll on his personal life as Downey battled addiction and incurred various drug charges early in his career,

Now, the Marvel actor, who has been sober since July 2003, has opened up about the moment he was sentenced to three years in prison after repeatedly missing court-ordered drug tests aged 34.

Appearing on the Armchair Expert podcast, Downey recounted his court experience to host Dax Shepard and claimed that he was “over-sentenced by an angry judge”.

He jokingly added: “At some point, he said something in Latin and I thought he was casting a spell on me.”

The Hollywood star went on to describe his experience in Delano, California at North Kern State Prison, which he described as a “receiving centre where they decide where you’re going to go”.

Downey explained the facility was mainly for organisation purposes so inmates were not separated depending on their crime, leaving him in the presence of people who had committed severely violent acts.

He added: “You could just feel the evil in the air, and that was no trouble at all because it was kind of like just being in a really bad neighbourhood.

“There was no opportunity there. There were only threats.”

Soon after he moved to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison. It was there he began to come to terms with his substance issues and how his addiction left him in prison.

He continued: “We are programmed to, within a short amount of time, be able to adjust to things that are seemingly impossible.

“And for me, there’s worse things that could have happened than being sent to an institution, for sure.

“However, we can only go by what we know, and I would imagine if I had to guess, that was the worst thing that happened to me.”

Downey only served a year of his three-year sentence and was granted early release in 2000 after posting bail. Five years later, he married his wife, Susan Downey.