Name: Robert Downey Jr. Says His New Film "Iron Man" Doesn't Stink | Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-03-06T23:00:11.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Robert Downey Jr. Says His New Film "Iron Man" Doesn't Stink | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-03-06. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Robert Downey Jr. Says His New Film "Iron Man" Doesn't Stink | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-03-06. Transcript available.

our first guest is an academy award nominated actor starring in a title role in
the title role
of the new film iron man it opens on friday here's the always entertaining robert
downey jr ladies
gentlemen you look great you look like you're uh in in tremendous shape and is
it because you're
in tremendous shape or did you do the movie and you had to be in tremendous
shape or am i just
wrong uh let's see it could be any uh combination of those elements right
sometimes you know suit
makes the man yeah i was in shape when we were doing the movie i can't say i've
been basically
eating my i've been circumnavigating the globe doing all this the press tour
and actually did travel the
globe promoting the film australia korea germany france italy the uk and now
here is it it's a
combination of exhausting and fun is that right absolutely i mean you know you
get you get fed
from people enjoying uh watching the movie and all that stuff but then you know
you're basically
repeating this what was it like in the suit or whatever if you could have a
superpower don't
worry about that question we'll get there it's gonna i mean it's different you're
gonna cross
that off and of all the stuff i've done in all the places we've been i just i
honestly have to
say this when uh john favreau the director and i got off he got off and kissed
the tarmac on the ground
and just being here now and being in new york and back in the states and being
on your show to me is
the big well god bless you that's very nice of you to say it's the truth it
happens to be the truth
well good thank you um and then was it this morning you opened the stock market
yeah what is that i mean
i've heard of it it's a what do you what do you do you uh basically you ring
the bell and fancy that
though me starting commencing uh the global finance come a long way baby boy
that's a lot of trust
and i'm walking through the place on the way you know walking me through the
floor and this fabergé
egg and i'm just looking around going back in the day this would have been the
ultimate club space
nice huh uh by the way how's your son indio is uh is doing real well he's 14.
he's 14. now tell me
is uh what is that what do i have ahead of me 14 year old boy what is that
going to be like oh it's
fine really oh yeah i don't believe you i don't believe you well it depends if
he got a well-adjusted
kid and all that you know i'm thinking my son uh he's a very normal and and and
surprisingly like a
very uh together young man considering the fact that he's he's most of his
friends are other you know
kids of hollywood freakouts so um i think i should get him just a really ghastly
summer job to kind of
keep his humility you know like what would that be well historically what did i
do i when i wasn't a
semi-professional uh sweater thief that's a whole other story sweater thief
yeah well sweaters and
shoes that was my specialty items anyway i worked at uh thrifties yeah oh thrifties
yeah it's like a
drugstore like every one-stop shopping on the west coast and me and reed and leno
my buddies we were
running a kind of a a grifter scam on the entire institution yeah we're someone
like then our friend
like steve would come and he'd be like hey bob how much is this lawnmower and i'd
say leno leno says
18 cents thank you and then he'd give us we were running then i got put in
inventory which is sold
him a lawnmower for 18 cents that's great then my probation was they knew
something was wrong they
put me in uh inventory oh inventory that seems like a mistake just off the top
of my head it's
it doesn't seem like a good idea no and we're like you know and we're smoking
weed so it's kind of
like giving like it's like giving a koala bear a rubik's cube something like
that sure then i was
relegated to ice cream detail then they had like five ten so at the end of the
day like basically my
arms smelled like dairy for a year they still do is that a bad is that a well
you should check it out
no i'm fine i'll take your word for it uh now tell me about this uh movie
because i'm a guy uh who knew
not much about iron man right uh and and then i see this uh right up about you
a profile of you in
the new york times and now i'm suddenly very interested because they're saying
the combination
of the material and you as the actor is going to be tremendous so now i'm
really excited to go see
this thing so i go to see it and i've seen superhero movies before but all of a
sudden i i i love this movie
and i'm thinking it's because you're in this and you've done something to the
material am i right
about that well close enough it's like anything john favreau the director you
know from from swingers
and directed elf and all that and i just made this combination and i basically
came into the trailer
every morning and balled up the script and threw it against the wall and he
said good morning robert
and as i take it you'd like to rewrite the scene i guess we just i just knew
that at some point i'd be
here talking to you or going on tours and stuff and it sucks when you're
talking to someone that
you know hates the movie that you're there promoting so we thought why not make
one that
doesn't stink for a change well this was uh commission mission accomplished um
but that's that's what i wanted to know and i was nervous about favreau because
he kept
sneaking into scenes and i kept saying no no get behind the camera we don't
want you you're the
director stop doing that i think he's probably here don't feel bad john um no
he all he would
say is like yes sir no sir come on if i was directing the thing i would have
been like let me show you
how tony would have done it i got this let me put on a suit but is is he now is
he uh does he have to
stick exactly to the script is that his responsibility is how do you stick to a
script that i've balled up
and thrown against the wall yeah and then there's all of the stuff like the the
robot fight scene at
the end correct how do you direct something like that um by by being by the
sensibilities that someone
like john has is very eclectic and he knows what audiences like to watch he
also knows he's not a
big fan of cgi so we tried to shoot a lot cgi is the computer generator yes you
know you try to shoot a
lot of it practically or in tracking suits more like like polar express right
style or some of
its animation i don't know a damn thing i can't believe i opened the stock
exchange this morning
and ask me about cgi i could even press a button mr letterman well talk about
stuff like that look at
this this is amazing there you are that's the iron man right there i am and
this is the one that i love
this you take the little helmet off and there you're right inside there can you
see that i am right
inside there now what yeah that's not bad that's not bad but who actually comes
to mind when you see
that uh what do you think i would say scott bale and then if from this angle a
little tilt down i'm
getting gabrielle burn but still and all there you go you got your own little
action figure and and
your son is he at the age where he's delighted by this or he thinks this is a
silly if he's 14 and
this delights him we got problems yeah i suppose so i didn't look at it like
that let me just sit
him right over there yeah uh so the uh uh the the where all was the film shot
where was the the
middle east stuff filmed uh we shot that in lone pine california it's like half
yeah halfway between
ellie and mammoth and uh and then the rest of the stages which were actually
where howard hughes
built uh the spruce goose you know who uh was here a couple of days ago maybe
yesterday uh gwyneth
paltron oh man are you kidding me you like that huh well she's you know what
you know what i liked
about her is she's uh she's a lovely but she's also just seemed like a nice
regular human being she
really is yeah you get along well during the film yeah i mean you know not that
not that it's difficult
yeah you know well i mean if i had to say there was one problem it's that she's
naturally about
eight feet tall it was basically doing scenes like this if it was like pepper
i'm going pepper pepper we've got to save the planet toady you'll die
but i can see where it's so i wanted to shoot the scene where it was like this
kind of like that pepper you know what i mean you know what i'm getting at yeah
but not without a
certain advantage yeah uh now let's uh
this movie opens on on uh uh friday and this is going to be an enormous uh film
uh what's the clip
we're going to see here robert uh this is where tony stark has become iron man
and decided to go
handle business and uh the good guys don't know quite what's going on just yet
let's take a look
iron man opening friday you get one of those suits well very entertaining film
congratulations thank you
thank you so much for being here good to see you again it opens friday iron man
we'll be right back with
Thank you.