10 Things We Learned From Robert Downey Jr On Joe Rogan's Podcast
2. His Approach To Memorising Lines
After confessing how brilliant Gwyneth Paltrow was at absorbing dialogue on a page, Rogan prodded Downey into confessing how he approached the arduous task of line-learning.
He spoke of trying to use the method of breaking down his lines into acronyms, which involved him taking the first letter of every word he needed to remember and putting it on a piece of poster-board. He would then stand away from the board - to the point where he could 'see it but (couldn't) see it' - and ran the lines over and over again until they sunk in.
Then in Sherlock Holmes, with the script constantly being re-written, Downey suggested having an ear-piece to feed him the lines and this meant that he dedicated less time to line-learning - meaning he could spend that time doing other stuff, instead.
Downey feels as though he has gone as far as he can go with that approach, but is open to a 'new method' or 'new method of the old method' going forward.