Hollywood hearthrob Robert Downey Jr reprises his seminal portrayal of Tony Stark (Iron Man) for the fifth time in Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Robert shares his experience about working in this chapter of the popular series and his camaraderie with director-pal Joss Whedon. Excerpts
Was there any specific way you wanted to take Tony Stark in this filmIJ
With the first film— The Avengers, Tony was becoming a team player and with Iron Man 3, it was him transcending his dependency on the tech that’s keeping him alive. So I thought, “ok, now whatIJ” But there’s all this unfinished business. There’s the matter of a certain wormhole that opened over New York and the imminent threat that still implies, so Tony has turned his attentions more towards a bit of a post-Reagan-era, Star-Wars-type notion and he likes to call it Ultron.
How do you balance giving the audience what they want but also surprising themIJ
The big idea is that all of us tend to think like the audience. While there’s certain aspects of familiarity that can comfort me as just someone who goes to movies and loves movies and loves franchises and sequels and all that stuff, it’s a different era, so what would have worked 5 or 10 years ago is completely obsolete now. I guess it’s always that trying to just stay a couple of inches ahead of the cresting wave but a lot of that is just intuitive.
What do you love about coming back to this character again and againIJ
I love the people. This time around I felt like I really got closer with the cast members and Joss and I are pals. Meanwhile, there’s always that feeling that you never forget your first time. From Iron Man 2 into The Avengers and Iron Man 3 there’s always this feeling of a life going on.
But more than any other of the Marvel movies since Iron Man 1 for me I feel like this is a feeling of an ending of an era and the beginning of another. Obviously some of that is informed by the new blood coming through, with Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and I welcome it.
What do you enjoy the most about working with director and good friend Joss WhedonIJ
Joss is just really smart and he thinks stuff through. I remember sometimes that the joy was creating things as we went along or within the context of the story.
We were really figuring out, “What frequency should this scene beIJ” and Joss tends to already be a couple of steps along in that process, which occasionally can make you feel like, “What am I bringingIJ” But there are always other steps that can go, so it makes it easier to get to the best version of something