Iron Man 3 Giveaway & Interview: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle and Screenwriter Drew Pearce
HomeIron Man 3 Giveaway & Interview: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle and Screenwriter Drew Pearce
Posted September 23, 2013 12:57 AM by Webmaster
Blu-ray.com and Walt Disney Home Entertainment are offering two members an opportunity to win a copy of Iron Man 3, which arrives on 2D and 3D Blu-ray on September 24th. To enter, simply add a comment to this news post with your top three Marvel Cinematic Universe scenes, character beats or sequences. (There are no right or wrong answers.)
The contest is open to all Blu-ray.com members (membership is completely free, click here to join) and will close on Sunday, September 29th at approximately 11:59pm EST, at which time two randomly selected winners will be contacted via Blu-ray.com PM. Winners will be asked to provide full name and a valid mailing address via PM, but personal information will not be shared or retained in any way. Maintaining our membership's privacy is of the utmost importance. Prizes that are not claimed within three days will be awarded to other entrants.
In the meantime, enjoy the following interview with Iron Man 3 co-screenwriter Drew Pearce and actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Don Cheadle:
How does Iron Man 3 compare to the first two movies in the superhero franchise?
Robert Downey Jr: This time, I feel that Iron Man 3 -- without taking it too seriously -- is about transcendence. It's about this thing that you become identified with. Are you capable of letting go of it because it's impeding your actual human experience? What is an actual human experience, and who's been humanizing Tony all along? The nice thing, and the reason I can get onboard with this, is Rhodey. Tony has a history with someone who really knows him, and also really knows the ins and outs of what you're supposed to do in a legitimate military or conflict situation. Then he has someone who also knows the ins and outs of his emotional life. What you achieve is about the human being you become; it's not about how many toys or how much fame, or how much fear you can instill in your enemies.
Don Cheadle: I think Iron Man 3 really pays off on the promise that the first two movies had, and we get to see all of these characters in a much deeper way. We certainly get to see the relationship between Pepper Potts and Tony Stark in a much deeper way. Plus, there are very real things that are happening inside this huge CGI world, which helps to really ground the movie. Shane and Drew have injected humor too. These things make the whole experience not just about walking in and watching a bunch of pretend things fly around, but there are real-world things happening. It's a lot of fun.
Drew Pearce: Coming into this project, Shane said he wanted to bring in lots of different genres because a movie like this is sometimes just regarded as a superhero movie. One of the great things about the first Iron Man that we always discussed was the fact that it's as much a romantic-comedy as it is an action movie. Marvel let us cook the stew for as long as possible before they saw what we had, which was great.
IM3 has the unique distinction of being a sequel to two different movies: Iron Man 2 and Marvel's The Avengers.
Robert Downey Jr: It's a complex thing. [Marvel Studios' President] Kevin Feige and Shane Black were the ones who really had to hammer out where all these strings go, and how everything moves something when you pull it.
Drew Pearce: I think what's interesting about the Marvel universe is the way that we take ideas and characters from the comic books, but there is no version of Tony Stark in the comic books that's exactly like the one in the Marvel cinematic universe. I think one of the brilliant things that Marvel does is they use great actors like Rebecca Hall, Guy Pearce and Sir Ben Kingsley, and it ends up being a bit more symbiotic. To be honest, it's a bit more old-fashioned. You end up writing to the great actors as much as you do to your inspirations in the comics and the ideas you have.
Shane Black has said Robert lives and breathes exactly like Tony Stark. How much of Tony Stark is in you and how much of Robert Downey Jr. is in Tony Stark?
Robert Downey Jr: Don and I have had many conversations about this. When you're looking at the back nine and you're not a kid anymore, you start to realize how much you share things with a character like Tony Stark. I'll never be more like Tony than I was three weeks before we started shooting the first movie. Back then, I was like, "Wow, look at this role I get to play!"
How has your relationship with Stark changed?
Robert Downey Jr: The older you get and the more life continues to whittle you down and smash your ego, the less you identify with things that are essentially just metaphors for narcissism or vain glory, or deep-seated fear and all that stuff. As Iron Man has become more real and more 'out there' in his own way, I've become just moderately more humble and more humanized.
Drew Pearce: My sense of humor -- along with Shane and Robert's -- is quite cynical and is about undercutting things. Weirdly, even though I think the tone of the movie is somewhat sarcastic or cheeky at times, I actually think the overall tone of the movie is Capra-esque. There's a bit of hope and a bit of love. It's sincere, and Favreau set a brilliant template for that in the first movie. For all the myth and all the comic book themes, what he always came back to was grown-up emotional reality, and you see that mostly in the Tony Stark/Pepper Potts relationship. In this movie, you see it in the relationships with Killian and Maya as well.
We get to see a lot more of Rhodey in Iron Man 3. Did you prefer scenes in the armor or out?
Don Cheadle: I prefer being out of the suit. The suit is great and it's great to be able to achieve all the things that we want to achieve with the CGI and the motion capture. But I had the most fun running around with Robert and us just physically going after it. This iteration of the film really is something that Robert and I talked about after the second movie. He came to me and said, "Now, let's try and really kick this relationship off, and really try to see who these guys are." That's why a lot of fun for me in this movie involved being able to do a lot of action outside of the suit, and getting to work with the stunt team and doing a lot of the cable work. That was just a big thrill for me. It was like I was a big kid being able to play with the best toys.
How did Iron Patriot come about?
Drew Pearce: One of the things in the stew of this movie is the idea of symbols. We thought about the way that in the modern age, symbols are more powerful than the facts themselves, or of the substance behind them. Even though Iron Patriot as a concept in the comic books has nothing to do with what we play with here, the outfit plays into that idea because it's such a potent-looking super-heroic notion. Quite early on, he went into the pot because we love the idea of playing around with that. We also liked the theme, as well as comedy and the reality of the fact that there's a superhero getting rebranded in order to make it more popular, which feels like it was something that could genuinely happen in the real world. That was our reason for including him.
The aftermath of the alien encounter at the climax of The Avengers had a huge impact on Tony. Was there a particular balance or any concern to referencing those events?
Robert Downey Jr: We just wanted to play with that in a binary way. It's weird when one movie that's connected to another doesn't reference that movie at all. It seems like you were so busy trying to make your thing work that you didn't have space. I think it would lack of confidence if we didn't refer to it. I thought it would be helpful. Drew Pearce: Marvel always knew there were certain points that we wanted to hit. We wanted to take stuff away from Tony and the house attack was always very much on the cards – but other than that, it was really all up for grabs. It was a case of Shane and I sitting around talking rubbish for as long as possible until we found stories that we really liked.
How did young Harley enter into the mix?
We all knew we were taking risks, moving outside of the familiar territory. I think his idea of a superhero running into a little kid in the heartland of America wound up being a wise choice and a calculated risk. I just like the idea of this kid getting under my skin. I like the idea of kids bringing their parents to the verge of an anxiety attack, and then, once they push you there, saying, "What's wrong with you?" I thought that was a nice way to refer back to it. We needed reasons, and sometimes you just look at the bigger picture of this continuance of stories.
What was the biggest challenge in tackling Iron Man 3?
Robert Downey Jr: I think the big challenge with these movies is the fact that they are only ever as good as their bad guys. But once we cast Sir Ben Kingsley [as The Mandarin], half of our troubles went away. Then, the other half had to do with him executing this very peculiar and awesome arc.
Ben Kingsley has said there was no need for him to improvise on set because most of The Mandarin's personality was already written in the script.
Robert Downey Jr: I'd like to counterpoint what Sir Ben said because once we let him off the chain, we found that he was a glorious improviser. Without giving away his character arc, a lot of the ideas came from what was written because Drew and Shane did have a good script. The story was really good. The twists were really good. It was all there already.
Don Cheadle: We felt like [Sir Ben Kingsley] really classed up the joint, so we were glad to have him there. It was a lot of fun.
In recent years, Tony Stark has dealt with betrayal, blood poisoning, alien encounters, and now the destruction and loss of his home. Where would you like to see the character go next?
Robert Downey Jr: I don't know. It's funny, but these things tend to come out of creative discussions, and there's always something new coming up. When we are shooting, we always say, "Wouldn't that be great?" But a lot of those things have come true already. I was always saying, "God, I just want to see Pepper in the suit. I want to see her experience what Tony gets from it, and I want her to help him transcend it."
Gwyneth Paltrow has called Robert and Don wimps because they complained about the suits.
Robert Downey Jr: I admit we're wimps. In Iron Man 2, Don's suit was so hard to even pick up to put on him!
Don Cheadle: I'd see Robert putting on just the top of his suit but I'd be putting on the whole suit. He said to me, "Yeah, I told them between [Iron Man] One and Two that they really had to make some changes and make the suit a lot more lightweight." And I was like, "But wait… mine weights 7,000 pounds! What are you talking about lightweight?"
Robert Downey Jr: Gwyneth came in and she was having a ball. Her kids were there and she was in rocking shape, so it was all nice and easy. I think she wore the suit once or twice only. Listen, it's a cumulative issue. Every bit as often, I would go to set and Gwyneth would be like, "Oh my God, what are we doing? What is this scene again? Shouldn't Pepper..." And she always points true north. Jon Favreau said from the first time we cast her that she's the heart of the movie, and he's right.
How has the relationship between Tony and Rhodey evolved for Iron Man 3?
Don Cheadle: I feel like you see the relationship has strengthened in this movie, and it pays off on the promise that was made at the end of Iron Man 2 in the Japanese garden where these guys really started busting each other's chops. They are friends, but they still really help balance one another.
How was it working with each other again?
Don Cheadle: Do you want me to tell you what he paid me to say or say what I feel? No, it was great to come back this time around. Shane almost coined and really put a stamp on buddy/action movies, and I was clearly in the pocket with Robert. It was great to see the whole movie put together in the end because we were all on such different tracks. I didn't know what Gwyneth was doing for half of the movie, so it was great to see it all put together and say, "Oh, that's what you guys were doing over there."
Robert Downey Jr.: This time, I'd be working with Don and he'd say to me, "You know that thing where you say something funny and I say something and then you answer it and we do that?" I go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." He says, "Could we not do that for once?" And I was like, "Oh yeah. Yeah, great idea." So there was a lot of give and take.
What do you think you've become for comic book fans, and how do you analyze the role of Iron Man in pop culture?
Robert Downey Jr: I keep re-reminding myself of this. Societally, it's the same thing as when Stan Lee wrote the original [comic book] in the '60s. It was about this very conservative, military, industrial complex guy who gets injured by his own weapons of destruction. It was wish fulfillment for a counter-culture generation. The nice thing is that nowadays, with the market flooded with all sorts of characters in TV and movies, Tony and the people he is in contact with in his non-Avengers world are real world things. It's about technology helping you overcome crises, and it's also about the challenge of the crises technology can incur.
In recent years, Tony Stark has dealt with betrayal, blood poisoning and alien encounters, as well as the destruction and loss of his home. Where would you like to see the character go next?
Robert Downey Jr: I don't know. It's funny, but these things tend to come out of creative discussions, and there's always something new coming up. When we are shooting, we always say, "Wouldn't that be great?" But a lot of those things have come true already. I was always saying, "God, I just want to see Pepper in the suit. I want to see her experience what Tony gets from it, and I want her to help him transcend it." The wish fulfillment happens pretty quickly in the Marvel universe, so I don't have any particular goals for it right now.
Drew Pearce: It's interesting because Robert is at a place where he doesn't have to do any movies, so unless he's excited about the idea of what the character is going to do and that it's going to feel fresh and that there is still a story to tell, he's genuinely not going to do it. It's two years of his life. We found something in Iron Man 3 that he definitely did want to engage with. I'm sure it can be done again.
The contest is open to all Blu-ray.com members (membership is completely free, click here to join) and will close on Sunday, September 29th at approximately 11:59pm EST, at which time two randomly selected winners will be contacted via Blu-ray.com PM. Winners will be asked to provide full name and a valid mailing address via PM, but personal information will not be shared or retained in any way. Maintaining our membership's privacy is of the utmost importance. Prizes that are not claimed within three days will be awarded to other entrants.
In the meantime, enjoy the following interview with Iron Man 3 co-screenwriter Drew Pearce and actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Don Cheadle:
How does Iron Man 3 compare to the first two movies in the superhero franchise?
Robert Downey Jr: This time, I feel that Iron Man 3 -- without taking it too seriously -- is about transcendence. It's about this thing that you become identified with. Are you capable of letting go of it because it's impeding your actual human experience? What is an actual human experience, and who's been humanizing Tony all along? The nice thing, and the reason I can get onboard with this, is Rhodey. Tony has a history with someone who really knows him, and also really knows the ins and outs of what you're supposed to do in a legitimate military or conflict situation. Then he has someone who also knows the ins and outs of his emotional life. What you achieve is about the human being you become; it's not about how many toys or how much fame, or how much fear you can instill in your enemies.
Don Cheadle: I think Iron Man 3 really pays off on the promise that the first two movies had, and we get to see all of these characters in a much deeper way. We certainly get to see the relationship between Pepper Potts and Tony Stark in a much deeper way. Plus, there are very real things that are happening inside this huge CGI world, which helps to really ground the movie. Shane and Drew have injected humor too. These things make the whole experience not just about walking in and watching a bunch of pretend things fly around, but there are real-world things happening. It's a lot of fun.
Drew Pearce: Coming into this project, Shane said he wanted to bring in lots of different genres because a movie like this is sometimes just regarded as a superhero movie. One of the great things about the first Iron Man that we always discussed was the fact that it's as much a romantic-comedy as it is an action movie. Marvel let us cook the stew for as long as possible before they saw what we had, which was great.
IM3 has the unique distinction of being a sequel to two different movies: Iron Man 2 and Marvel's The Avengers.
Robert Downey Jr: It's a complex thing. [Marvel Studios' President] Kevin Feige and Shane Black were the ones who really had to hammer out where all these strings go, and how everything moves something when you pull it.
Drew Pearce: I think what's interesting about the Marvel universe is the way that we take ideas and characters from the comic books, but there is no version of Tony Stark in the comic books that's exactly like the one in the Marvel cinematic universe. I think one of the brilliant things that Marvel does is they use great actors like Rebecca Hall, Guy Pearce and Sir Ben Kingsley, and it ends up being a bit more symbiotic. To be honest, it's a bit more old-fashioned. You end up writing to the great actors as much as you do to your inspirations in the comics and the ideas you have.
Shane Black has said Robert lives and breathes exactly like Tony Stark. How much of Tony Stark is in you and how much of Robert Downey Jr. is in Tony Stark?
Robert Downey Jr: Don and I have had many conversations about this. When you're looking at the back nine and you're not a kid anymore, you start to realize how much you share things with a character like Tony Stark. I'll never be more like Tony than I was three weeks before we started shooting the first movie. Back then, I was like, "Wow, look at this role I get to play!"
How has your relationship with Stark changed?
Robert Downey Jr: The older you get and the more life continues to whittle you down and smash your ego, the less you identify with things that are essentially just metaphors for narcissism or vain glory, or deep-seated fear and all that stuff. As Iron Man has become more real and more 'out there' in his own way, I've become just moderately more humble and more humanized.
Drew Pearce: My sense of humor -- along with Shane and Robert's -- is quite cynical and is about undercutting things. Weirdly, even though I think the tone of the movie is somewhat sarcastic or cheeky at times, I actually think the overall tone of the movie is Capra-esque. There's a bit of hope and a bit of love. It's sincere, and Favreau set a brilliant template for that in the first movie. For all the myth and all the comic book themes, what he always came back to was grown-up emotional reality, and you see that mostly in the Tony Stark/Pepper Potts relationship. In this movie, you see it in the relationships with Killian and Maya as well.
We get to see a lot more of Rhodey in Iron Man 3. Did you prefer scenes in the armor or out?
Don Cheadle: I prefer being out of the suit. The suit is great and it's great to be able to achieve all the things that we want to achieve with the CGI and the motion capture. But I had the most fun running around with Robert and us just physically going after it. This iteration of the film really is something that Robert and I talked about after the second movie. He came to me and said, "Now, let's try and really kick this relationship off, and really try to see who these guys are." That's why a lot of fun for me in this movie involved being able to do a lot of action outside of the suit, and getting to work with the stunt team and doing a lot of the cable work. That was just a big thrill for me. It was like I was a big kid being able to play with the best toys.
How did Iron Patriot come about?
Drew Pearce: One of the things in the stew of this movie is the idea of symbols. We thought about the way that in the modern age, symbols are more powerful than the facts themselves, or of the substance behind them. Even though Iron Patriot as a concept in the comic books has nothing to do with what we play with here, the outfit plays into that idea because it's such a potent-looking super-heroic notion. Quite early on, he went into the pot because we love the idea of playing around with that. We also liked the theme, as well as comedy and the reality of the fact that there's a superhero getting rebranded in order to make it more popular, which feels like it was something that could genuinely happen in the real world. That was our reason for including him.
The aftermath of the alien encounter at the climax of The Avengers had a huge impact on Tony. Was there a particular balance or any concern to referencing those events?
Robert Downey Jr: We just wanted to play with that in a binary way. It's weird when one movie that's connected to another doesn't reference that movie at all. It seems like you were so busy trying to make your thing work that you didn't have space. I think it would lack of confidence if we didn't refer to it. I thought it would be helpful. Drew Pearce: Marvel always knew there were certain points that we wanted to hit. We wanted to take stuff away from Tony and the house attack was always very much on the cards – but other than that, it was really all up for grabs. It was a case of Shane and I sitting around talking rubbish for as long as possible until we found stories that we really liked.
How did young Harley enter into the mix?
We all knew we were taking risks, moving outside of the familiar territory. I think his idea of a superhero running into a little kid in the heartland of America wound up being a wise choice and a calculated risk. I just like the idea of this kid getting under my skin. I like the idea of kids bringing their parents to the verge of an anxiety attack, and then, once they push you there, saying, "What's wrong with you?" I thought that was a nice way to refer back to it. We needed reasons, and sometimes you just look at the bigger picture of this continuance of stories.
What was the biggest challenge in tackling Iron Man 3?
Robert Downey Jr: I think the big challenge with these movies is the fact that they are only ever as good as their bad guys. But once we cast Sir Ben Kingsley [as The Mandarin], half of our troubles went away. Then, the other half had to do with him executing this very peculiar and awesome arc.
Ben Kingsley has said there was no need for him to improvise on set because most of The Mandarin's personality was already written in the script.
Robert Downey Jr: I'd like to counterpoint what Sir Ben said because once we let him off the chain, we found that he was a glorious improviser. Without giving away his character arc, a lot of the ideas came from what was written because Drew and Shane did have a good script. The story was really good. The twists were really good. It was all there already.
Don Cheadle: We felt like [Sir Ben Kingsley] really classed up the joint, so we were glad to have him there. It was a lot of fun.
In recent years, Tony Stark has dealt with betrayal, blood poisoning, alien encounters, and now the destruction and loss of his home. Where would you like to see the character go next?
Robert Downey Jr: I don't know. It's funny, but these things tend to come out of creative discussions, and there's always something new coming up. When we are shooting, we always say, "Wouldn't that be great?" But a lot of those things have come true already. I was always saying, "God, I just want to see Pepper in the suit. I want to see her experience what Tony gets from it, and I want her to help him transcend it."
Gwyneth Paltrow has called Robert and Don wimps because they complained about the suits.
Robert Downey Jr: I admit we're wimps. In Iron Man 2, Don's suit was so hard to even pick up to put on him!
Don Cheadle: I'd see Robert putting on just the top of his suit but I'd be putting on the whole suit. He said to me, "Yeah, I told them between [Iron Man] One and Two that they really had to make some changes and make the suit a lot more lightweight." And I was like, "But wait… mine weights 7,000 pounds! What are you talking about lightweight?"
Robert Downey Jr: Gwyneth came in and she was having a ball. Her kids were there and she was in rocking shape, so it was all nice and easy. I think she wore the suit once or twice only. Listen, it's a cumulative issue. Every bit as often, I would go to set and Gwyneth would be like, "Oh my God, what are we doing? What is this scene again? Shouldn't Pepper..." And she always points true north. Jon Favreau said from the first time we cast her that she's the heart of the movie, and he's right.
How has the relationship between Tony and Rhodey evolved for Iron Man 3?
Don Cheadle: I feel like you see the relationship has strengthened in this movie, and it pays off on the promise that was made at the end of Iron Man 2 in the Japanese garden where these guys really started busting each other's chops. They are friends, but they still really help balance one another.
How was it working with each other again?
Don Cheadle: Do you want me to tell you what he paid me to say or say what I feel? No, it was great to come back this time around. Shane almost coined and really put a stamp on buddy/action movies, and I was clearly in the pocket with Robert. It was great to see the whole movie put together in the end because we were all on such different tracks. I didn't know what Gwyneth was doing for half of the movie, so it was great to see it all put together and say, "Oh, that's what you guys were doing over there."
Robert Downey Jr.: This time, I'd be working with Don and he'd say to me, "You know that thing where you say something funny and I say something and then you answer it and we do that?" I go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." He says, "Could we not do that for once?" And I was like, "Oh yeah. Yeah, great idea." So there was a lot of give and take.
What do you think you've become for comic book fans, and how do you analyze the role of Iron Man in pop culture?
Robert Downey Jr: I keep re-reminding myself of this. Societally, it's the same thing as when Stan Lee wrote the original [comic book] in the '60s. It was about this very conservative, military, industrial complex guy who gets injured by his own weapons of destruction. It was wish fulfillment for a counter-culture generation. The nice thing is that nowadays, with the market flooded with all sorts of characters in TV and movies, Tony and the people he is in contact with in his non-Avengers world are real world things. It's about technology helping you overcome crises, and it's also about the challenge of the crises technology can incur.
In recent years, Tony Stark has dealt with betrayal, blood poisoning and alien encounters, as well as the destruction and loss of his home. Where would you like to see the character go next?
Robert Downey Jr: I don't know. It's funny, but these things tend to come out of creative discussions, and there's always something new coming up. When we are shooting, we always say, "Wouldn't that be great?" But a lot of those things have come true already. I was always saying, "God, I just want to see Pepper in the suit. I want to see her experience what Tony gets from it, and I want her to help him transcend it." The wish fulfillment happens pretty quickly in the Marvel universe, so I don't have any particular goals for it right now.
Drew Pearce: It's interesting because Robert is at a place where he doesn't have to do any movies, so unless he's excited about the idea of what the character is going to do and that it's going to feel fresh and that there is still a story to tell, he's genuinely not going to do it. It's two years of his life. We found something in Iron Man 3 that he definitely did want to engage with. I'm sure it can be done again.