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Series: Sherlock Holmes

SDCC: Downey Talks SHERLOCK

The Celebrated Actor Defends the Character's Roots

By Rob Vaux July 24, 2009

Jude Law, left, Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel McAdams star in SHERLOCK HOLMES(2009).
© Warner Bros. Pictures/Alex Bailey

Rob Vaux reporting from the Sherlock Holmes Panel:

Actor Robert Downey Jr. talked about the origins of Sherlock Holmes at a press conference promoting his new film version of the character. Popular culture has taken the famous detectives down some different roads since Arthur Conan Doyle first penned his adventures in the 1800s. Downey maintains that the new film adheres more closely to Doyle's original vision.

"Oft-associated props have never appeared in the novels or the short stories," Downey said.

"Holmes never wore a deerstalker cap, except maybe once, for a minute, but even then it was described differently. And even the long pipe was just something that [actor William] Gillette used to not obscure his face onstage. We went back as much as we could--without wanting to be reverent beyond repair--to how Doyle explained the characters. Doyle really was an amazing writer and storyteller. I really didn't know how great he was until we kept reaching out to find quotes and things he said, descriptions he wrote, and really more philosophical points of view that Doyle expressed through Watson and Holmes."

Sherlock Holmes was directed by Guy Ritchie, and is scheduled to hit theaters this Christmas.