Downey Comments on Iron Man!

[Advanced Dark]

Short but at least it's something:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-10-22/47273.html

Broadway After Dark
Robert Downey Jr. gets Iron Man buff, OBIE awards gets new chairman
By Ward Morehouse III
Special to The Epoch Times Oct 22, 2006


IRON MAN: Actor Robert Downey Jr. during a photo shoot in July. Downey appeared last Tuesday at the Americans for the Arts National Arts Awards at Cipriani 42 Street. (Evan Agostini/Getty Images)NEW YORK—Jake Gyllenhaal, Aretha Franklin, Kitty Carlisle Hart, and Jeff Koons were honored at this year's Americans for the Arts National Arts Awards chaired by Maria Bell at Cipriani 42 Street. The elegant event, which raised more than a million dollars, brought out the likes of actor Ronald Perlman and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. Presenter Robert Downey Jr.—toned and taut in preparation for his upcoming superhero role as Iron Man, in Marvel Entertainment's first independent film, directed by Jon Favreau—told me, "I've been working on something for Broadway for 10 years, but I'll be engaged for awhile in this film, which I hope will be successful." Downey, a well-respected talent, presented Gyllenhaal with the Young Artist Award.

Downey reflected on his contemporaries: "Mark Ruffalo, is between Jake's generation and mine. We just did this "Zodiac" film, and it turned out great." (The three actors star in "Zodiac," a film slated for 2007 based on the serial killer who terrorized San Francisco in the 60s and 70s). "I have to say after watching "The Departed" last week, that Leonard DiCaprio is a very established actor. He's always pushing new ground. Even the established actors of my generation like Mark Wahlberg and the like are continuing to grow and try different stuff. And it's inspiring."

***

Veteran Broadway actor Jason Alexander, the famed George Costanza on TV's Seinfeld, has directed his first TV commercial. It's a public service announcement concerning the ills of second-hand smoke.

***

Jack Nicholson's date at the New York premiere of his movie, "The Departed, Paz de la Huerta," wore red hair recently. Previously a honey blond, she acquired the new do on the advice of her long-time hairdresser, Maureen McLeod, of Benisty Beauty Salon at 152 West 26th Street.

***

It has just been announced that Michael Feingold, chief theater critic of the Village Voice, where he has been a contributor since 1981 and a staff writer since 1980, will be the new OBIE Chairman.

The Village Voice OBIE Awards, off-Broadway's highest honor, has often been a forecaster of shows and artists who often receive their first acknowledgments from the OBIEs and then go on to make their mark in the mainstream.

Mr. Feingold is a graduate of Columbia University and the Yale School of Drama. He sustains an ongoing second career in theater as a playwright, translator, director and dramaturge. His translations of plays and operas, which now number over 50, have been heard on and off Broadway, in resident theaters across the country, and in major opera houses. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in Criticism, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Senior Fellow of the National Arts Journalism Program, Feingold has received the coveted George Jean Nathan Award for his Voice reviews.

***

What do Tony Bennett, Luciano Pavioretti, Steve Martin, and Marty Short have in common? A love for fabulous Italian food, such as served at San Domenico restaurant. On any given night you can see one or all of them at this close-to-Broadway gastronomic palace. The other day, Tony May, owner of San Domenico, hosted the historic signing of the collaborative agreement between Hartford's Connecticut Culinary Institute and the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreign Professionals of Costigliole d'Asti, Italy.

The Italian Culinary Institute has relationships with many foreign countries throughout the world, sending professional chefs to teach local culinary students recipes and procedures for making fine Italian food. This is their first relationship with a cooking school in the United States. A fully accredited course, the 27-week curriculum includes 12 weeks at the Connecticut Culinary Institute hotel in Hartford, followed by 15 weeks at Costigliole d'Asti in Piemonte. The hands-on course in Italy includes internship at well-known Italian restaurants. "We wish to make Americans understand Italian cuisine has evolved so much," said Tony May. He should know. His award-winning kitchen is vigorously watched over by acclaimed executive chef Odette Fada.

***

Donny Osmond, currently starring in "Beauty and the Beast" on Broadway, Euan Morton (Tony nominee, "Taboo"), Felicia P. Fields (Tony nominee, "The Color Purple"), Liz McCartney ("Mama Mia," "Taboo"), Merle Dandridge ("Tarzan"), Christine Pedi ("Forbidden Broadway"), and KENiMATTix (world renowned acrobats Ken Berkeley and Matthew Cusick) will be part of the sixth annual gala benefit for "Only Make Believe," hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford, on Monday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Hotel (145 West 44th Street).

The charity brings theater to chronically-ill children. Jeremy Gilley, founder of the international non-profit peace organization Peace One Day, will receive the 2006 James Hammerstein Award for his outstanding dedication to children in need.

Funny thing is some of his contemporaries were mentioned by fans here as a canidate for Stark including Ruffalo, Leo, and Wahlberg.

[Advanced Dark]

Here's another article on the event with some brand new photo's. No goatee though he can grow that out real quick.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=12970

Robert Downey Jr.

Lance Armstrong, Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr.

[Spider - Man]

Good find, AD! Downey looks good! And yeah, he could be ready to go as Stark on a week's notice!

[Ironman24]

Nice, he looks good and ready for the role, he seems very excited about the film.

[muscaremy]

i see no pics on that link...is sumtin wrong with the site or sumtin

[Advanced Dark]

There's pics there in the link in post #2 above the 1st pic.

[Nightwing]

Even though it's short words, Downey sounds really confident in the film. And hopefully about breathing life into Stark. Good to know he's excited about making it a success. It shouldn't be too long until we see him getting in shape for the role. He already seems to be well on his way.

[Punch]

Originally Posted by Batman

Even though it's short words, Downey sounds really confident in the film. And hopefully about breathing life into Stark. Good to know he's excited about making it a success. It shouldn't be too long until we see him getting in shape for the role. He already seems to be well on his way.

lol, what?

"I'll be engaged for awhile in this film, which I hope will be successful."

How does that sound confident? he's excited?

[tamron]

Originally Posted by Punch

lol, what?
How does that sound confident? he's excited?

It certainly didn't read like he was very exuberant about IM. Maybe you just had to be there.

[Advanced Dark]

http://www.**************.com/news/articles/3920.asp

New comments from Downey.

He. Is. 'Iron Man.' Robert Downey Jr. Speaks

The Oscar-nominee chats, in his inimitable style, about suit zippers, the importance of lighting, and keeping it real.

"If there’s ever been a character in the history of my career that I would be happy to associate myself with it’s Tony Stark," Robert Downey, Jr. told Wizard's Rickey Purdin, "because it’s the coolest job that I’ve ever had."

That's an impressive statement from the prolific actor who turned in memorable performances in Natural Born Killers, Less Than Zero and Chaplin, which earned him an Academy Award nomination. But as he discussed, at length, his titular role in Jon Favreau's Iron Man, the first feature from Marvel Studios, Downey supported his pronouncement by revealing the deep thought he put into the project.

"Well, I’m not like coming in and going, 'Hey, this is all wrong. Relight.'" he said in his own defense. "But I will come in and say, 'I’ve seen this in a movie before, no offense. But if we do this, I haven’t seen that.' Some of them are so far out they go, 'Will you just go and put on your chest piece and earn a living like everyone else?' But, I feel the responsibility to not venture into this genre without an understanding that it’s actually inhabited and enjoyed by very apt, bright, perceptive people. So, just because it happens to have this two-dimensional aspect to it in its origins doesn’t mean that it doesn’t go deep and that it shouldn’t be an art form."

To better understand those origins, Downey had lunch in Beverly Hills with Tony Stark's father, Stan Lee, who admitted that the creation of Iron Man had been a challenge in the Vietnam Era. But it was a "dare" that paid off, bringing in more female fans for the vulnerable billionaire than for all the other Marvel heroes combined.

But what real-life influences did Downey draw upon for that vulnerable billionaire?

"Well, this might sound a little weird, but I’m not drawing on other things for him," he said. "It’s like I consider him to be a real entity for the most part. Regardless of the amount of dough that I’ve made over the years, I’ve never lived four seconds like this guy has lived every day. So it’s been this really kind of amazing experience to see what it would be like if you had unimaginable resources and you had this change of heart and then you decided to pull those resources into something that became very much like a fetish and obsession.

"I tended to go more into mythology and the real basis of mythology and how men and women are capable of, at a certain sort of level, making themselves godlike, clearing themselves of these earthly things and locking into a purpose or some sort of divine idea, whether it seems dark at the time or not. It’s like you can see through perception and then you have this heroic experience."

Of course, there are some distinctly un-heroic experiences in the actor's past which many Iron Man fans feel make him perfect for this role. But, though candid about his extended, highly-publicized battle with drug addiction, which cost him a marriage and time behind bars, Downey downplayed the influence of that struggle on his portrayal of Stark, the first major comic book superhero to suffer from alcoholism.

"I think that when someone has had a fundamental change," he explained, "Whatever friends of mine or peers who are just in a different place in their own evolution, by the time that you’ve seen the light and start doing the right thing, you really don’t relate to the person that historically [they] still say you are.

"So, my thing is that Tony Stark has been known to go bonkers and be so irresponsible that he’s too hammered to put on the suit. It’s the fact that Tony is so conflicted at certain points, I guess, in the later years with 'Demon in the Bottle' and all of that stuff. There’s so much stuff going on in this movie as it is that we decided not to do that thing too, but I get it. In a way that’s why it’s ideally suited for me and I’m ideally suited for it."

Speaking of suits, Downey proudly declared himself "the first person who’s been able to relieve themselves while wearing the suit," thanks to a zipper cleverly concealed by a hitch piece.

To make sure he looked plausible as the man in the "armor," the now-forty-something actor put himself through a rigorous exercise regimen on top of his regular martial arts, yoga and healthy diet.

"There are a couple of scenes where they light it right and I’m like, 'Wow. That really looks great. I’m really in shape.'" he said. "Then you see this picture of Tony Stark [from the comics], who kind of looks like Tom Cruise except more handsome and more buff...I’m not particularly tall and I’m surrounded by giants, and I’m not walking around like Don Adams, on boards or anything, but there are all these elements of, like, when I see this movie I want to be able to believe that he’s the guy."

Putting on the suit definitely helped get Downey into the mindset of a powerful superhero. "Like, the first time you try on that suit, you could take the least macho superhero man or woman and put them in this suit, and I swear to God that for 15 seconds you would believe that any of them would destroy their nemesis."

In the face of so many tech-heavy elements, the down-to-earth actor--who came to Iron Man from such character-driven films as Zodiac and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang--had to work harder to put a human face on this comic adaptation.

"As much as we’ve been able to in this," said Downey, "we’ve tried to have it feel like if [Robert] Altman had directed Superman or something like that."

Iron Man blasts into theaters May 2, 2008.
P. Ryan Anthony
9/5/2007
Source: Wizard

[Advanced Dark]

He's supposedly well on his way.

[xwolverine2]

nice to hear SOMETHING

[EagleVision]

I'm just glad to see Downey doing well, having recovered from his drinking, drugs, and womanizing battles and continuing to hone his craft for acting. He is a truly talented and gifted actor.

[ultimatefan]

Very interesting analysis. Downey definitely helped to bring credibility to this movie.

[Mr Jide]

Yeah, Downey is a great actor and I agree that he's bringing credibility to such a deserving character. Its just a shame that not all of Marvel's movies make such inspired decisions or use such talent. F4 comes to mind.

[chamber-music]