Robert Downey, Jr. is featured on the cover and in the pages of the new issue of Entertainment Weekly in order to promote his new Guy Ritchie-directed film Sherlock Holmes (due out in theaters on Xmas day). In his coverstory interview, RDJ talks about working on Sherlock and also talks a lot about his future plans … which don’t necessarily include acting anymore:

This week’s Entertainment Weekly takes a look at the martial-arts-filled new action movie Sherlock Holmes, a literary giant that Robert Downey Jr. and director Guy Ritchie are trying to make young again. As the star of the film, Downey has had time to hone his own deductive powers. When he stepped into the role of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Baker Street detective, Downey, along with British director Guy Ritchie was determined to give the iconic crime-fighter a unique stamp. Downey knows the stakes are high – he was cast hot off Iron Man and Tropic Thunder. At the time, he cheekily said of Holmes, “Clearly I’m going to do it better than it’s ever been done.” Today he’s a little more circumspect. “Holmes is a huge iconic character, and this is a really big movie.” He shrugs. “I’m just a guy.” Despite all the bells and whistles of a nearly $100 million budget, the makers of Sherlock Holmes insist their film is faithful to the detective’s roots as a supersleuth. “People think the movie is going to be, like, this modern punk-rock version where we’re all wearing high-tops,” says Jude Law, who stars as Holmes’ sidekick Dr. Watson. “It’s actually more true to the books than they’re guessing.” Ritchie, who listened to recordings of Holmes stories at his English boarding school as a boy, instantly saw the appeal of the project. “I loved the idea of an intellectual action hero,” says the director. At first, he wanted to relaunch Holmes with an origin story, but once Downey expressed interst, Ritchie fell in love with the idea of setting the actor loose in the criminal underwold of Victorian London. “It seems impossible now that anybody other than Rob could have played him,” Ritchie says. “He thinks like Sherlock Holmes, he’s complicated like Sherlock Holmes, and he can really brawl.” In the end Downey says portraying Holmes was as much an act of make-believe as playing a guy in a metal suit. “I’m very intuitive,” he says. “But playing Holmes, sometimes I’m just standing there trying to hopefully appear smarter than I am.” He laughs. “Some of it is really basic: You pick a point and just look at it and say what you’re saying – because what you’re saying is smarter shit than most people say.” Shooting on the London set was rather collision-free, but the biggest drama took place off the set, as Ritchie’s divorce from Madonna made headlines. Downey says Ritchie did his best to tune out the distractions. “Guy is a country gentleman,” he says. “He doesn’t want to occupy his mind with things that may be unpleasant or may get him riled up. He was just doing what he would have been doing regardless of the situation.” Ritchie describes his own way of dealing with the tabloid noise in four simple words: “Head down, arms swinging.” Ten years ago, Downey was bouncing in and out of jail and rehab, but now he reflects on the improbable spot he’s currently in – with Iron Man 2 set for release next May, a new comedy by the director of The Hangover, and a possible second major franchise with Holmes. “I have no set plans for my future,” Downey says. “I’ve never had it this good – this is my day in the sun – and I certainly don’t want to look a gift horse in the molars. But Susan [Downey, his wife] and I want to begin to be in our lives as much as we are in our jobs. I’d love just to sit here and say, ‘What movie’s playing tonight?’ I’d love to finish the new book about D-Day I’m reading. I love painting, I love music.” Sometimes, he says, he asks himself whether he even wants to keep acting. “I’m fucking really good at what I do – and have been for a long time, so I don’t waver on that,” he says. “But here’s the thing: I can only be a guy on a call sheet probably, I don’t know, maybe a couple more times. It’s something I’m so grateful to have in my palm, and yet I already see its inevitable decay.”

I cannot WAIT for this movie to come out. Ever since it was announced that RDJ would be playing Sherlock Holmes I’ve been counting down the days ’til the film’s release. I totally agree, I don’t think anyone else acting today could be called upon to play Sherlock as well as RDJ. He has a certain je ne sais quoi that lends itself to these types of movies … he has a comic timing that is pitch perfect and he really does have the acting chops to bring iconic characters to life as seemingly “regular” people. As for the fact that he may quit acting soon? Well, I’m not too worried about that. RDJ only takes on films that he knows he will do well … I contend that if more of those movie offers come his way, he’ll do them. He’s too good an actor to retire for good … I’m sure of it. As I mentioned above, Sherlock Holmes opens on December 25 … who’s excited with me?

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