Bless This Mess with Team Downey

Not long ago, Susan Downey was texting with a stressed-out director. She won't name names, saying only that she and her partner, Amanda Burrell, are working with him on a project for the Team Downey production company. "He was trying to make a difficult decision, unrelated to us," she says. "So, we're texting back and forth. Finally, he's like, 'I think I need to come to you for all my life decisions.' For me and Amanda, that's just how we operate. There's no off switch."

The message is clear: these women are bosses in every sense.

Downey, a founder, and Burrell, the president of production, are currently overseeing a half-dozen projects under the Team Downey banner — including the second seasons of HBO's Perry Mason and Netflix's fantasy series Sweet Tooth. They're Zooming side-by-side on location from Thailand for the adaptation of the 1970s-set spy thriller The Sympathizer. (The limited series will premiere on HBO next year.) "As producers, we don't just pop in and out," Burrell says. "We wanted to come here and make sure everybody felt supported."

That all-in attitude has been the backbone of Team Downey since its formation in 2010. Downey, a longtime producer (Sherlock Holmes, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), explains that she and her husband, actor Robert Downey Jr., "are hands-on in this industry," so they found a way of collaborating when they weren't working on their own projects. Burrell, a veteran in the indie film world, joined a year later and says the three connected quickly. "We decided that life's too short," she says, "and we should pick the things that we really love."

Though the company originally focused on theatrical films, it pivoted to television as the medium's content horizons expanded. In fact, Perry Mason, a moody 1930s-set drama in which the hero (Matthew Rhys) solves cases as a private detective, was developed as a movie. "With television, you can build out these character-driven stories," Downey says. To that end, she adds that the company's diverse lineup shares a common thread: "Our characters are super messy, and we love them anyway. We want to go to their world to spend time with them."

To keep their own chaotic world thriving, Downey and Burrell rely on each other. "We love to build on what each other is saying, whether we're talking about a script or just an idea," Downey says. "Robert loves that he has these two mama bears running things."

Burrell adds, "There's a lot of trust. But it's also like, 'Okay, let's go make some trouble.'"

The interviews for this story were completed before the start of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine issue #7, 2023, under the title, "Bless This Mess."