image © PA PHOTOS
Did you have to hit the gym in order to be ready for the physically demanding role of Iron Man?
I was weight training and training in martial arts for a year for no particular reason – and then I did another six months after I signed up for the film. Dude, it took me 18 months just to not look like I didn’t work out at all. It was a lot of hard work.
What kind of image did you want to portray on the big screen?
Well, I talked to Matt Damon a little bit about this. We chatted about the director of Bourne Ultimatum who would often say to Matt: “Don't smile. Act more butch.” That's good advice, but I couldn't really stick to it.
Was the Iron Man suit uncomfortable?
It was extremely heavy and I was pretty blind inside it. There were three guys who got to wear the suit, including me, and then another guy at the end when we were too banged up to do anymore. As soon as the helmet was on, I could hardly see a thing. It was like being in a knight’s suit of armour with a thin slither of vision, but if the helmet rode back a little, you couldn’t see a thing. You got used to it, though.
Blockbusters 2008: The Big Preview
Did they custom tailor the suits to your body?
They custom tailored the suits to the most in-shape and tallest of the stunt men. It wasn’t me.
Was it a pain to act in?
That Mark One suit [the first Iron Man suit seen in the movie] was incredibly heavy and they’d be asking you to do manoeuvres when you’re standing on tip toe inside it. At one point, one of the guys was in the suit and he tripped up over a bag on set. I couldn’t believe the discipline that guy had because your instinct is to put out your arms when you fall over – but in something so heavy, he would’ve broken both of them. He just tucked his arms in and took it right in the face. I was like, ‘Wow!’
image © Paramount
That sounds pretty serious…
I went over to him and said, “Dude, are you OK?” He just looked at me and said, “This is going to be an Advil Thursday.” I couldn’t believe it. He went on to tell me, “I’m glad that happened to me first instead of you because if and when it happens to you, tuck your arms.” Thankfully, it didn’t happen.
Did you hurt yourself at all during filming?
There’s nothing major to speak of – just a few bruises here and there. We were training so much that we couldn’t tell how injured we were. I guess that’s how guys go on to their next football game. You train yourself not to feel the pain or anything.
So what drew you to this movie in the first place?
You know what? God bless other heroes who get to be bitten by a radioactive spider or are tripped out by bats – but I like this guy. He is around because something happened that was his own doing and due to his own naïveté. This is a karma superhero, really, more than anything else.
How similar are you to the character you portray in Iron Man?
Tony Stark is someone who inherited a massive responsibility and he is actually a very industrious person. I make faces for cash – and I shot myself in the foot for years. If nothing else, I guess I can relate to someone who can see things a different way, just like Stark does.
This Marvel superhero was a highly controversial character when he was created back in the seventies… What’s your take on that?
What [Iron Man comic creator] Stan Lee hasn’t said is that he created Iron Man on a dare. A dare that you could make a military, industrial, complex, womaniser billionaire into a hero during a time when all that stuff was really not cool. He did it – and I’m more than happy to be a part of it. Let’s hope I get to do it all again a couple more times, too.
Blockbusters 2008: The Big Preview
