Show, November 2008

Metal Head - Robert Downey Jr. Surprising Superhero

By Melora Koepke.

NOT JUST ANY MAN CAN BE IRON MAN

Comic-book heroes tend to be all-around good guys, with muscles and special powers wedded to an earnest do-gooder mentality. But Iron Man, a.k.a. billionaire playboy/weapons developer Tony Stark, is hardly a babe in the woods. He's a wry, brash businessman out to squeeze every pleasure from his fast-lane lifestyle, including the fame and fortune (not to mention babes) that come with selling his powerful toys to whichever side pays best. And he's ambivalent, on a good day, about saving the world.

Needless to say, Tony Stark demands an actor who's lived life to the fullest and who's at least a little addicted to the adrenaline rush of the rocket suit. So when Marvel Studios hired writer-director Jon Favreau to bring Iron Man to life, Favreau brought on board the only man he knew with the mettle to play the man in metal: Robert Downey Jr.

"I love that Robert has the same subversive sense of humour that Tony Stark has and that I have," says Favreau. I felt he would add that dimension to the role, and that whatever might seem like downsides to other people, based on his history, would only inform who Tony Stark is. So the fans were going to like him because he's a gutsy choice. And it's the one superhero role he could actually play."

Despite plenty of lauded past work, including his Oscar-nominated performance as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, Downey Jr. is at least as famous for his off-screen misdeeds as for his well-honed craft. But he's been out of the spotlight for the past five years, rebuilding his art in small films like Fur, opposite Nicole Kidman, and the dark high school comedy Charlie Bartlett. All that changed in May when Downey blasted through the expectations for what a superhero in a big-budget summer movie could be. Iron Man's outrageous success put him in the headlines once again - this time as a leading man whose powers, though human to the core, are nothing short of super in their implementation.

           

So how did Downey, an actor's actor who had never taken on such a heroic role before, succeed in crafting an Iron Man that appeals to adults as well as kids?

"Well, I'm not age-appropriate to play characters like this," said Downey, looking weary yet suave in New York City on the eve of Iron Man's release. "But there was this grey area in the way Tony Stark is represented in the comics as this really handsome, savvy, supersexy, cool guy. And he's a genius."

As for his ability to personify Iron Man's larger-than-life abilities, Downey joked, "I told myself, 'They can fix all that in post-production.'" Still, Downey worked with trainers for months to sculpt his character-actor physique into something that would fly - literally.

For Downey, these days it's all about the work, and he prefers to work very, very hard. Directly after shooting Iron Man, he jetted to the jungles of Hawaii to headline Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder as Kirk Lazarus, an Australian method actor who submits to skin pigmentation treatments to play an African-American soldier in a Vietnam War flick. Is Downey in danger of running himself ragged?

"This year, I've basically woken up every morning and looked at a call sheet," he says, referring to his back-to-back shooting schedule. "I feel like I've been playing tennis in the zone, and rather than wait until I start losing friendly competitions, it's just time to rest up. I have this fantasy that I would like Mom to come and tell me to take a nap, but that's not going to happen, so I need to pace myself. To me, it's that game, that Rubik's cube of life... to be able to control and enjoy what's going on. With Iron Man I didn't think, 'It's time for me to go out and get myself a franchise, and I've got to get really big, really fast.'"

Whatever Downey's need for speed, or lack thereof, his momentum seems to be propelling his own career - not to mention superhero movies - into the stratosphere.

           

MAGNETIC PULL

Robert Downey Jr.'s loose screws are what drew his co-stars to him.

Jeff Bridges
"Robert is a wonderful playmate - that's the word that comes to mind. Especially in a movie like this, there's the element of pretend, like when you were a kid. We had all the great costumes, all the cool kids got to play. And he was fun top play with."

Gwyneth Paltrow
"One of the reasons I wanted to do the film was Robert, and also the way Jon Favreau explained to me who Pepper is. She's Tony's conscience, he's her boss, and there's that... She's mothering towards him, very protective, but also there's this sexual chemistry."

Terrence Howard
"Robert's the same as Tony Stark - he's completely generous but completely crazy. Crazy and a genius. He's one of the smartest actors I've ever worked with, and I've learned so much from him."

Leslie Bibb
"Robert brings his "A" game, and on top of that he's a swell guy. I'm a nerd - I really think the sun shines out of his behind. I had these moments where I got really excited during a scene. The words were coming out of my mouth that were written on the page, but inside my head there was this voice that was like, 'Oh my God, that's Robert Downey Jr.'"

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