Four years after Robert Downey Jr. played Iron Man for the last time, Marvel president Kevin Feige has explained why the actor was almost passed up for the role and why he will never return to it.
Speaking to Vanity Fair for the 58-year-old Hollywood icon’s cover story, Feige said studio executives were hesitant to cast him due to his sketchy past, which included a 1996 conviction for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded .357 Magnum.
‘It purely came down to the Marvel board being nervous at putting all of their chips in their future films on somebody who famously had those legal troubles in the past,’ he dished to the publication.
What changed their minds was Downey Jr.’s screen test, which was filmed on September 25, 2006.
And after the Golden Globe winner completed reshoots for 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, Feige said, ‘We promised him it would be the last time we made him do it—ever.’
And for fans who think Tony Stark could be revived, as Marvel often does with its powerhouse characters, Feige says it’s out of the question.
‘We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again,’ he said about the figure’s final turn.
‘We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way,’ he confirmed.
It was noted that Robert was hesitant to redo lines of dialogue for the final Endgame edits.
‘We’d already said tearful goodbyes on the last day of shooting. Everybody had moved on emotionally,’ explained Kevin.
Anthony Russo added: ‘That was a difficult thing for him to do — to come back to pick up that [final] line.
‘When he did come back, we were shooting on a stage directly opposite where he auditioned for Tony Stark. So his last line as Tony Stark was shot literally a couple hundred feet from his original audition that got him the role.’
His wife Susan Downey also spoke to journalist Anthony Breznican for the VF story, which was written before the SAG-AFTRA strike was resolved, prohibiting Robert from being interviewed.
Of her Oppenheimer actor husband, she said he enjoys TV and film ‘like a sporting event.’
‘He’s so excited for what someone just pulled off or the degree of difficulty that he recognizes,’ she described.
Susan, who heads production company Team Downey with her beau, continued that her partner will note while watching something: ‘Like, “Oh, my God, they shot that at night. That was probably really cold. He had to go do this physicality, give this speech, turn around, do this emotional beat….”
‘He’ll break it down in a way that you just see: This is somebody who respects that it’s hard.’
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
