Robert Downey Jr. may have strictly stuck to the script for Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” but back for his MCU debut, the Oscar winner shrugged off any lines he didn’t like.
According to Downey’s “Iron Man” co-star Gwyneth Paltrow, Downey would tell director Jon Favreau “I’m not saying these fucking lines” each morning and “throw” out the scenes. Favreau and Downey would then improvise on set, leading Paltrow to also have to wait and see for her own dialogue.
“There would be this process of [director] Jon Favreau and Robert and I going into Jon’s trailer in the morning and Robert being like, ‘I’m not fucking saying these lines’ and throwing them out,” Paltrow told Esquire. “And then live improv-ing either in the trailer or on the set.”
She added, “I think in order for something to feel alive for Robert, it has to feel fresh, and he makes it fresh by making it feel like it was just invented. So many of those famous lines were written ten minutes before we said them.”
Apparently, Downey’s “Iron Man” tactics still extend to his more recent projects, including Park Chan-wook‘s HBO limited series “The Sympathizer.”
“I started to wonder whether Robert had 10 writers at his house who he hired to come up with different lines, which he would memorize and pretend they were improv,” Park said to Esquire. “How could it be that he comes up with such lines so quickly?”
Even after winning his Academy Award and collaborating with auteur Park in the TV space, Downey is still open to returning to the MCU, telling Esquire that he would “happily” reprise his role as Tony Stark.
“It’s too integral a part of my DNA. That role chose me,” Downey said. “And look, I always say, Never, ever bet against [MCU boss] Kevin Feige. It is a losing bet. He’s the house. He will always win.”
Downey previously said during the “Literally! With Rob Lowe” podcast that his Marvel acting was “some of the best work I will ever do” onscreen, despite his performance having “went a little bit unnoticed because of the genre.”
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