Downey Fuses with Stark at 'Iron Man 2' Conference
It was a bit like life imitating art with Robert Downey Jr. jesting like Tony Stark this morning at the Iron Man 2 press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. Imagine if Downey and George Clooney ever teamed up together.
Appearing with co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle and Mickey Rourke along with director Jon Favreau, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and screenwriter Justin Theroux, Downey laughed and teased and cajoled and baited just about everyone.
"Physically, I feel like Don and Scarlett and Mickey actually had a heavier load this time as far as…" Downey offered.
"He made them do it all in CGI," Paltrow interrupted. "F… it, CGI, CGI it, I'm walking off."
"Draw me," Cheadle countered.
Indeed, the conference displayed the same kind of improvisational feel they said the shoot offered as they attempted to raise the stakes in every respect for their Paramount/Marvel sequel that opens May 7.
However, at the end, Downey offered a sober analysis of his character: "…The mental and emotional aspects of Tony were to me a lot more -- it's strange to say personal -- 'cause it's not necessarily relating to my life, so to speak, but just the mythology of saying you're something and being that something are entirely different. And also this whole idea of Howard Stark and the legacy and the shadow of that legacy that we were always talking about -- Mickey and I -- of being kind of two sides of the same coin: one who is able to escape that captivity and one who saw his father die in the ruins of improper recognition, and having to reckon with that…"
But then, right in the middle of his discussion, the Iron Man 2 banner fell off the latticework behind them. So, when Paltrow began answering a question about her character's stronger sense of priorities and emotional stability, Downey tried to put the poster back up, failed and wound up wrapping it around him.
Meanwhile, in terms of juicy news, Theroux, Feige and Johansson teased that there is a real possibility of Johansson's Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow spinning off into her own movie (talk about The Avengers: she looks like a modern Emma Peel in her black catsuit), and scribe confirmed that Iron Man 2 takes place chronologically before The Incredible Hulk, for those trying to figure out the potential Avengers lineup.