Christopher Nolan: Casting Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man Was “One of the greatest casting decisions in the history of movies”
Actor Robert Downey Jr. who is regarded as one of the exceptionally skilled actors in the industry starred as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s recent Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, etc.. The actor was highly appreciated for portraying the negative character on-screen and fans believe that he could be the front-runner for an Academy Award 2024 for Best Supporting Role as well.
Robert Downey Jr., very popularly known as Tony Stark a.k.a., Iron Man from Marvel Cinematic Universe first appeared in 2008’s Iron Man and practically set the groundwork for the MCU saga and was loved by millions of fans across the world. The actor’s character faced its fate in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame but remains one of the fan-favorite characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Christopher Nolan did not hold back while appreciating Marvel Studios for casting Robert Downey Jr. in his life-changing role. Let’s find out what Nolan had to say.
Christopher Nolan praised Jon Favreau for casting Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man
During an appearance on Happy Sad Podcast, while promoting Oppenheimer, filmmaker Christopher Nolan said,
“When Jon Favreau had the insight to cast him as Iron Man, it’s one of the greatest casting decision in the history of movies. You look at what that did and where that went with everything. I think that was Jon just knowing what an incredible actor, what an incredible potential that was from Downey.”
It’s pretty ironic that where the entire world appreciates and is thankful to Marvel Studios for casting the actor; the studios were reluctant to hire him because of his challenges with substance abuse. In a recent cover story for Vanity Fair, Marvel Studio boss Kevin Feige revealed how they concluded getting Downey on board. He said,
“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. I wasn’t very good and I’m still not great at taking no for an answer. But I also don’t pound my chest to try to get my way. I try to figure out ways to make it clear to other people why we should head in the direction and that’s when the idea of screen test came up.”
Robert Downey Jr.’s screen test for Iron Man impressed the Marvel executives and a good word from Jon Favreau helped the actor to land the role that changed his as well as the life of Marvel Studio.
Also read: Black Panther 2 Spinoff on Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark Successor Gets Devastating Update
Kevin Feige says everybody looked up to Robert Downey Jr.
Fiege noted that everyone used to joke that Robert Downey Jr. was the head of the acting department. This was because every actor on set looked up to him and it was like he took everyone under his wing. Robert Downey Jr. effectively became his co-stars’ cheerleader on set.
With this Kevin Feige also put an end to the rumors about the actor reprising his role as Iron Man by stating that it’s not going to happen. He said,
“We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again. We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it any way.”
Anthony and Joe Russo who directed three Marvel movies with Downey in it also mentioned during the conversation with Vanity Fair that the actor has certainly lived a complicated life and he understands the stakes, loss, and the turns of life that can go up and down. The two said that this was the reason why he is always looking for that level of depth and complexity.
