Robert Downey Jr. has admitted that he was concerned about whether playing Marvel superhero Iron Man (aka Tony Stark) for over a decade would cause him to lose his edge as an actor.
“You start to wonder if a muscle you have hasn’t atrophied,” Downey Jr. told The New York Times Magazine about spending the good part of 11 years playing a lead member of the Avengers. Now that the actor has exited the Marvel Cinematic Universe after 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, he is set to star as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film, Oppenheimer, about the creation of the atomic bomb.
When asked in the interview whether he had any concerns about whether his years in the MCU would have an impact on the role, Downey Jr. responded, “Yes. 100%, and I knew there was a point where Chris Nolan was endorsing, let’s work those other muscles, but let’s do it while rendering you devoid of your usual go-to things.”
This meant Downey Jr. had to scale back from his usual “fast-talking, charming, unpredictable, blah, blah, blah” persona and drill down into the character of Strauss, who served two terms on the US Atomic Energy Commission.
Overall, Downey Jr. described the movie as “this quality product,” adding, “I’m happy that I regained my connection with a more purist approach to making movies.”
Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy as the “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer. Out in theaters on July 21st, it also features Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh. Revisit the latest trailer here.