Robert Downey Jr. Explains the Process of Working on Marvel Movies | Joe Rogan

It just changes and I also know that I don't really know that much and it's different every time anyway. But some I really like when you have a loose concept of what you're doing. There's certain parts that aren't going to change much and the rest you discover. So the first Iron Man, I mean, John and I and the writers or John and I, we were just would write you write a line or write a line. And then we would we were literally watching the puppies be born as we did it frustrating for people who not Gwyneth because she can look at a piece of paper and then go, OK, I get it. And she's got it all memorized. She's amazing. But what's for the highest good? Sometimes it's very self-indulgent to come in and like, you know, hand out new pages or say, oh, I'm not saying that. So feed me that. You know what I mean? You need an environment of respect. But I like I like discovering things. How much of acting is managing those weird relationships that you have with these other people that you're acting with? Like you've made some references to like people changing other people's lines and not being prepared. I got out of acting for that very reason. That was the thing that I I went from a world of stand up comedy, which are just a bunch of crazy people, to actors, which are a bunch of crazy people, but in a different way. And the managing all the different characters and all the different personalities. How hard is that? That seems like that could really get in the way. Well, you sure can. And it's like a thumbprint. Every time you're on a new project, it's a completely different, you know, fingerprint. You never know what you're going to get. And sometimes projects seem blessed and sometimes you could say they're cursed. But again, my Susan Downey Esquire was talking about this yesterday. She goes, it's the only thing you can't overcome as a creative producer on a big movie or anything is in principle, no matter what happens, you can fix it. We lost the light of the thunder. The weather came in. OK, he got sick. Oh, she's oh, she's pregnant. OK, great. Let's change the costume. You can't overcome personalities. Yeah, the relationships that people have with each other. Do you meet up before you commit to a role? Do you ever say like, I want to meet Captain America and find out what the fuck that guy's really like? Like, by the way, I mean, I love that you think I'd have the authority to cast this guy. All right, let me get a taste of it. I'll tell you, stick around. I'm really interested in doing that. But we all have a group dinner or something like that. Yeah, I meet these guys. My my M.O. is always let's mind melt. Let's get together. Let's work weekends. Let's spend time together because you can't replace that familiarity. But so you have to try to build it. And sometimes it happens very naturally. Like I adore Chris Evans. I can't even tell you why he's a Boston guy. He's technically and it's such a brilliant actor, but he also doesn't take himself seriously. He's flaky, but he's the first guy you would want to have your back if something went down. He's and yet we're different enough where I feel like by being who we are and then both having those characters, we were able to. I think I thought I thought Civil War was a special moment in the in the arc of the Marvel films about turning one against the other and what it meant. And and so sometimes you just get lucky. As a matter of fact, the whole Marvel universe, possibly without exception, just happens to be a really well. What do you call that when you when you put together something curated group of souls? Well, it's interesting because people take superhero movies seriously now, like now superhero movies are films that happen to be about superheroes. Whereas, you know, for the longest time, superhero movies were bullshit. You know, the TV shows were kind of clunky. There were there were campy, you know, it was Batman with the silly pants on and Robin. I bought it. Everything was bang. Boom. Bang. Remember, you'd see the big boom. Absolutely. And yet who was in the first Superman, Brandon? Yes. Right. So there was always a seed of an attempt to legitimize something that was otherwise two dimensional. The Superman was probably the first film that really did that. Right. And then Batman. Yeah. And then the Batman series. But again, how many goddamn Batman's have there been? Right. I'm I want to see what Pattinson does. Oh, that's right. He's going to be Batman now. I like that guy. We how many Spider-Man's have there been? That's the most right? Three. Only three? Yeah. And three Hulk's. Right. At least one, two, three. Not counting the TV show. Yeah. Counting the TV show. Four. Counting the TV show. Oh, you're right. Eric Bana. You're right. Yeah. Norton. Yeah. Mark. Mark Ruffalo. I think he's my favorite. He was just born for it. Yeah, it's perfect. You believe him. Yeah. And again, his whole thing was what's my action is like, you know what? I got an anger problem. How do you guys manage this giant CGI thing? Like, how does that work? Like when you're on the set. But that seems like one of the weirdest parts about acting in some of those Avenger films is how much of it is actually digital. Yeah, you just kind of get used to it. All digress. I did a movie with Richard Linklater called Scanner Darkly, and it was rotoscoped. Great buck of movie. I love that movie. Love him. And Keanu and I and Woody and Winona, and it was this cool thing. And we would shoot these scenes and he would say, oh, you can just leave your body mic on the outside because we're just painting the whole thing. So that rotoscoping is a great metaphor for essentially what the Marvel movies became when sometimes you would even go in. I'm supposed to come in and like, you know, throw something in the vehicle. But everything else was great. Oh, we'll just move your arm later. And you go, wow. So you never want to rest on your laurels and say, you know, but after a certain while, I was like, why am I wearing this football suit? Just put some dots on my shoulders so I can move more freely. And they'd be like, all right. I go, honestly, what are you really using this all this stuff I'm wearing for? They go, for reference. I go, great. So I'll wear it for one take and then I'll take it off and I'll relax a little bit. But then other people would be like or a bet new would be like, I'm stuck in this fucking thing, Don. You know, paint it purple. So everybody got to join in on the joys and the miseries of the of the technical challenge of doing it. And speaking of Ruffalo, by the end, because he's smart Hulk, he literally they were just making him bigger wherever he was. And they put a little, you know, a piece of PVC with a big Hulk head up about five feet over where his head was. And he was just there in a green suit. So in a tracking suit with like his package out, you know, and he'd be like, let me just at least tie like a little sarong around my come on, guys. And so I think Mark went about as far out into the ionosphere of of CG as you can. I didn't get the whole smart, smart Hulk thing. I didn't get how they how he figured that out. It wasn't really. Yeah. Like Hulk is supposed to be Hulk. Right. It's supposed to be the altar. It's like one you can control. One is one of the genius scientist. Exactly. And one is the beast. But after so many times and again, this is the genius of the people who who break and shape stories over there. Feige and his team as they go, oh, he's Hulk and he's not Hulk. He's Hulk. It's a big battle. Oh, he's so conflicted. What if he could meet himself in the middle and then what corner have we painted ourselves in by having him meet himself in the middle? Because then you can't ever if that doesn't work, you can't go back to the way it was. You've done it or you can go back to the way it was. So I just think that the real genius of the Marvel creative team is they and the Russo brothers who did the last few. Avengers infinity weren't endgame is they go. We love writing ourselves into a corner. We love it because then it it activates all of those. How do we get out of purgatory juices and then you get the next right idea now when you guys sit down and when you first receive a script for one of these things. Do they consult with you? Do they discuss this with you? Do they just lay it out and say this is this is the character arc? How do you how do you feel about this? What do you think? Yeah. And but it's changed over time. I think if you're one of the folks as their standalone movies like Scarlett has Black Widow coming out. I think you take a I would you take a bit of a different tack in how much meaningful I think the phrase the legal phrase for actors and studios is meaningful consultation. Not script approval because then anybody could hold a studio hostage because I don't approve this thirty million dollars that you're trying to spend right now. So your schedule is fine when you say I don't approve I picture a bathrobe and I picture fine china and tea cups. That's a picture I don't approve and then just storming off. I've had my moments too because I'm so passionate about story. But again after more seat time with the same people and new people coming in and getting a pretty brutal education on what kind of process these movies require you. You just start trusting more that they're thinking on your behalf. And also little things are easy to change. Things become a inconvenience to the higher good. And at what point do you want to pull the air break on something where the trains you know already leaving the station. I would imagine it would be a fine line that they have. They want the actor to be comfortable with the character and they want some and maybe some feedback would be beneficial. But they're also they have a path a vision that they've created. They would like to see you somehow or another at least more slightly to get on this path. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way after I had my second round of kids with Susan I became both artistically I had a bit of a renaissance when I was doing the third Iron Man. And then after that too I was like well now I'm going to do this Avengers and there's so many moving parts and it's so difficult just to get all these schedules to coincide and get everyone together. Then I'm not going to be like I'm not feeling it. So again it's that thing. It's a it's sometimes whether they say faster alone further together sometimes you can only think about further because you got to get downfield. Other times you're thinking hey this is my moment to run and I need I need a little help and a little approval and I need a little leeway. But that's any creative endeavor. I would imagine when you're involved in something that's so epic when it's actually over it probably almost seems surreal because the production is so massive. There's so many moving pieces. There's so many special effects so many things that you you have to sort of visualize while you're doing it. And then after it's all over you're done. And what is it like what is a big Avengers movie. How many months are you involved in this. Well I mean it could be some part of 18 months to two years depending on how far out you are and then four to six months of principal photography and then additional photography and then post and then I always include promotion. You know from yeah yeah from soup to nuts I think is the phrase soup to nuts. Yeah that's a Joe Silver phrase one of my one of my great great friends and probably one of the greatest big movie producers of all time. We did the Sherlock's with him. He did the Matrix series. My missus was running his company for 10 years. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which is I think in some ways the best film I've ever done wound up being a calling card. It came out and it bombed and but John Favreau saw it and he said this guy could do an action movie. And so that wound up being my calling card into the Marvel universe.