IT’S his first sequel and Robert Downey Jr. felt more pressure making Iron Man 2 than at any point in his career.
Remember, this is the man who was better known for his drug offences and courtroom trials from 1996 to 2001.
It was only when his pal Mel Gibson paid Downey’s insurance bond for the 2003 film The Singing Detective that his once stellar career was put back on track.
Thriller Zodiac followed in 2007 and in 2008 he finally made it back into Hollywood’s good books – first with Iron Man and then his Oscar-nominated role as a white man pretending to be black in war comedy Tropic Thunder.
The success story continued last year with Sherlock Holmes, which won him a best actor Golden Globe.
And now he’s back as millionaire turned metal man Tony Stark in Iron Man 2, which is out in a couple of weeks.
Downey, 45, said: “I’ve never been in a sequel. It’s very daunting because I feel the expectation of the millions of people who watched it and enjoyed it and told me that it was a little different than your usual genre picture – and that they expected us to not screw it up.
“So I have probably taken Iron Man 2 more seriously than any movie I’ve ever done, which is appropriately Hollywood.”
Now once again one of the industry’s most bankable actors, and happily married to film producer Susan Levin, Downey conceded that Tony Stark is him – just cooler.
He said: “There are a lot of similarities although in so many ways I’m nothing like the guy and I actually, really, had to play a much cooler version of myself. (more…)
Iron Man 3
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows
Due Date
