Robert Downey Jr: Style and Sherlock

Robert Downey Jr. can't contain his smirk.

He has a playful smile that lights up a room more than 1,000 Christmas lights. Ask him about impending new fatherhood as a midlifer and that smirk turns into a full-fledged grin.

"I can't wait," he says. "I'm very excited. I can't wait to change diapers. Now more questions just about me, please," he says with a laugh.

His wife is producer Susan Downey and it's a cozy family situation. He stars in the "Sherlock Holmes" movies and she produces them. He's the yin to her yang – and vice versa.

She's not responsible for dressing him because Downey has always been a man of style.

I'm talking to him in the swanky ballroom of the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills a few weeks before Christmas.

Downey is GQ handsome and proves that men can take chances with color. He is decked out in a dark taupe suit, which he pairs with a teal blue shirt and a navy tie.

His hair is black and pushed off his face. A few days growth of facial hair just adds to the appeal.

 "Third outfit change of the day, thank you very much," he says concerning the suit.

He addresses other concerns right off the bat including his lack of Watson today. It's true that Jude Law is AWOL.

"Jude by the way would have been here but his son had a soccer game," Downey says with a smirk.

Speaking of fatherhood, Downey isn't in big trouble for revealing a few nights ago on "The Tonight Show" that he's having a boy.

"If I told you the baby's name, she'd lop off my head with a machete," says Downey who has an 18-year-old son Indio with his ex wife.

PLAYING SHERLOCK HOLMES

Downey stars in the sequel to 2009's hit called "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows."

In the film, Sherlock and his trusty Watson must team up again to deal with their toughest adversary, Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris). A gypsy woman played by Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth in the original film "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") is also thrown into the mix.

Speaking of style, Downey dresses up in several disguises in the film including as a very ugly woman to get out of a scrape.

"We're discussing who he looks like the most," says his wife Susan.

"I think that as a woman I look like Arnold Schwarzenegger's smaller brother," Downey offers, but his wife shakes her head. "I think Tony Curtis' brother," she offers. "Or he looks like the lead singer from the Cure."

"Whose name I can't remember, which is embarrassing," Downey says, adding, "Any other movies we can talk about now like 'The Artist?' Does that guy dress up in drag?"

 Downey says he had one rule for himself in resuming the role of Sherlock. "Oftentimes, what's required of you is you have to just let go," he says. "You have to let go of the things that are darling to you. Let go of the focus being you." You can't just run your mouth all the time."

Downey says that it's easy for him to get into Holmes' skin. "I have to reach that fine line between madness and genius," he says and then pauses.

"We're talking about the character and not me personally," he adds.

DOWNEY'S NEW LIFE

Downey's been up, down and all around. He conquered a drug problem and now his career and personal life have never been better.

"Working together is great. You don't have all that time away from each other," he says. "I love when couples have a two week rule. We have a two hour rule."

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