Personal life
Susan Levin's first full-credit producer job was for the 2003 thriller Gothika, starring Halle Berry and Levin's future husband, actor Robert Downey Jr. Downey – who was in the process of divorcing his first wife, Deborah Falconer — has said that his most memorable recollection about shooting Gothika was "romancing the producer"; Levin stated to James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio that while she thought Downey was "an amazing actor that we were lucky to have in our movie", her first impression of him was that he was "weird." The two quietly struck up a romance – though she turned down his romantic advances twice for fear that their relationship would not last through the completion of shooting because "he's an actor; I have a real job." The couple eventually made their relationship public in the fall of 2003.
Downey proposed to Levin on November 5, 2003, the night before her 30th birthday. They were married on August 27, 2005, in a Jewish ceremony at Amagansett, New York. She gave birth to their son, Exton Elias Downey, on February 7, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. On July 9, 2014, Downey Jr. announced via his Facebook and Twitter that he and his wife were expecting a daughter in November. Their daughter, Avri Roel, was born on November 4, 2014.
Downey credits his wife with helping him with his former drug and alcohol habits, which he quit in 2003, and revitalising his career. "The old saying is true – behind every good man there's an incredible woman. I owe a huge amount – if not all – of my success to Susan. We make a great team, and all that luck I spoke about, that's Susan." Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie describes the couple as "the greatest illustration of a symbiotic marriage that I've ever seen. It's a real yin and yang, and it's made him a joy to work with. Robert would be a pain in the ass if he didn't have Susan to police him." One of Downey's biceps bears a tattoo which reads "Suzie Q" as a tribute to her.
