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THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2008

IRON MAN: U.K. PREMIERE

Paramount Picutres has released images from the Iron Man premiere event in London.

Following is a rundown of what the actors said at the premiere:

ROBERT DOWNEY JR.

On whether he was revisiting his playboy days by doing this movie

"Well, considering I was 41 when I was cast and turned 42 when I was shooting -- I felt I was more visiting my retirement the way I felt in the morning sometimes."

On whether he was surprised at being cast

"I was surprised that I went after this as hard as I did, but I felt like I had to, but it paid off, I think."

On making a different kind of superhero movie

"Well I was saying this this morning. Jon and I were big fans of what (Christopher) Nolan was able to do with Christian Bale in the whole Batman franchise and they did this very dirty, dark complex take on the superhero. And we thought they did that as good as it can be done, so we tried light and simple."

On fans' reaction

"It's important isn't it? You really got to listen to their feedback but so far so good."

On what fans can expect

"I guess the same thing that I always hope to see, is a little bit of invasion and a different take on the superhero because Tony is a self-made superhero. He's the first one to make no apology in his inventions."

GWYNETH PALTROW

On whether she's as organized as her character

"Well I try to be. Sometimes I stress myself out trying to get everything so organised. In the last couple of years I've tried to get rid of the perfectionism. But I do like to have things organised."

On being back on the red carpet

"It's very different to my actual life, so I'm having a good time."

On research into character

"Well, it's a real honour to play her, someone who's been in the hearts and minds of the Iron Man fans for so many years. I guess I read a lot of the comics and try to understand who she was, what motivated her, what kind of woman she was."

On whether she's subservient like her character in real life

"Not very. My father taught me to be a strong woman which I'm very thankful for. I'm not the complete opposite. I'm strong willed, but I'm not as strong and patient as Pepper."

On whether she's a comic book fan

"No, I wasn't really a big comic book fan until I got signed up for this film and got to understand the whole world and the imagination. Then I got really into it and got really into reading comics."

TERRENCE HOWARD

On appeal of Iron Man

"You have Superman and superheroes, but anyone can become an Iron Man -- any woman, any boy any old man that has the tenacity to create something from seemingly nothing. Limitations are our achievements. That's the genius of Tony Stark to take something simple and make it great."

JON FAVREAU

On the promotional round the world trip

"It's great. I've been travelling around the world and I'm not someone that likes to fly. So, I've been from Mexico City all the way to Australia, Korea and to Paris, Rome and now I'm in London. I was in Berlin, and everywhere we go, the people seem to love the stars, they seem to love Gwyneth and everything she's wearing and are more fascinated with her footwear than the politics of the United States of America, so it's encouraging to see that people are willing to be distracted and are ready to escape from all their problems that are going on right now and have a good time at the movies."

On trying to please the comic book fans

"Well, the comic-book fans have been the people I have to thank for the movie coming up to this level. A year or two ago, when I started working on this movie, people didn't know who Iron Man was, they thought he was someone b-level Marvel hero. Nobody really cared about a movie like this, there were already enough superhero movies and now because of the fanboy support and their appreciation of the casting and the way we designed the shoots and the trailers put together, it's slowly built up on the internet into a sensation where everybody seems really excited about the film, so I appreciate their involvement and how helpful they've been."

On why Iron Man is an unusual superhero

"Well, Marvel heroes have always been a little off beat and Iron Man has always been an outsider among the crazy off beat superheroes so there's only one guy to go to and that's Robert Downey Junior because you want a guy who brings a good sense of humour, spontaneity, an unexpected sense of authority and somebody who would make people who wouldn't normally go to see a superhero movie come and see a superhero film and Robert Downey really takes that off and makes it into something very special."

On why Robert Downey Jr. was perfect for the role of Iron Man/Tony Stark

"It's the role of a lifetime for him. A lot of people thought Chaplin was but I happen to think that this guy was destined to be Tony Stark, because Robert's grown up in the public eye ­ everything good and bad that's happened to him in his life has been everybody's seen and Tony Stark he's also a guy who's grown up in the public eye. He's a genius and everyone respects his talent. The fact of the matter is that Robert Downey Jr. is a great improviser and has a great sense of humour and he finds the real humanity in something that could otherwise be a two-dimensional comic book figure."

On making a genesis movie

"Well whenever you have a movie that deals with the origin of a hero you have to lay all the ground work out so we tried to integrate it into the movie so it didn't feel like you were watching two different movies, like the beginning of the movie where he becomes the hero and the end of the movie where he fights -- we wanted to connect the movie so it came across as one unified piece."

On what audiences can expect

"Hopefully they'll get some laughs, hopefully they'll get some excitement and hopefully they'll see some great performances by our wonderful cast."



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