Robert Downey Jr. plays the sane doctor in the haunting and scary new movie "Gothika." And while Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz play insane, it was Downey who fell crazy in love with producer Susan Levin.

Downey says, "The best part was meeting my girlfriend. She's got an opinion that's grounded in actual intelligence, and she cares for me. She's basically running my program. This is my motto: it's a man's world, but women run it."

Clean and sober now, Downey has plenty to joke about. But getting there took some help from his A-list friends including Mel Gibson, who helped Downey simply by believing in him.

Downey says, "He wasn't above putting me in a head lock and trying to get me out of the situation I was in. I was so out of it, I was like, 'Oh it's Martin Riggs, and I'm in Lethal Weapon 9. Save me from the bad guy.' He'd say, 'You are the bad guy.'"

Cleaning up his act also meant shedding some pounds. Downey says, "I don't look good when I'm overweight. I look like I just got pulled out of a river."
Downey couldn't be more serious about his main focus in life: 9-year-old son Indio. He says, "I think the only thing I'm likely to get arrested for in the future is overreacting at a soccer game."

He believes the trouble he's had will keep his son in line. He says, "There will come a time when one of his peers will roll a joint and has it in his mouth, and I know that he will associate that with all the turmoil he saw me create in my life. I think he has built a deterrent against getting involved in things that are really dangerous."

With a new movie, a new girlfriend, and a new outlook on life as a dad, Robert Downey Jr. is on a roll.