Robert Downey Jr. is surrounded by teens doing illegal substances in Charlie Bartlett, but he doesn’t partake; he doesn’t even inhale. Downey admitted to me that taking on the role of a high school principal who is trying to shut down campus drug dealer Charlie Bartlett (played by Anton Yelchin) was a switch for him. “Twenty years ago maybe I would have been Charlie,” he says. “But I think drugs are more rampant today among kids than I remember back in the day. I guess the whole pharmacopoeia and how they can be of some benefit or a whole lot of trouble is worth exploring. The message of the movie doesn’t promote indulging.”

The guy he plays is struggling with alcoholism and Downey has some convincing drunk scenes. But, he insists with a laugh, “Drinking and drugging are behind me, so I was fine with pretending–which, believe me, is all I was doing in the film.”

Downey is still writing his autobiography and I found out that he may be taking a little dramatic license with the legendary ups and downs he’s faced. “I’m sort of reinterpreting,” he says. “I don’t want to read a straight-up autobiography of anyone. I think it’s kind of self-indulgent. So mine’s more like historical nonfiction.”

I’m wondering if he’ll include some flashbacks to the time he spent in the slammer, which he remembers with his trademark sense of humor. “Some of the inmates slipped me scripts they’d been writing and they also slipped me shivs to keep in my bed,” he says. “I used to do a lot of autographs. Finally, one of the correctional officers came over and said, ‘Bro, if you don’t get the hustle on and charge them for those autographs, they’re going to think you’re a sucker.’ So some guy came over and I go, ‘That’s forty cents, man.’ He goes, ‘Forty cents for an autograph?’& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; #160; I go, ‘I’m sorry, I meant to say fifty cents.’ He goes, ‘ Dude, you just said forty.’a I said ‘ Dude, it’s fifty unless you keep talking.’ And he goes, ‘ Fine.’”