IRON MAN: ROBERT DOWNEY JR.

NEW YORK -- The Continuum continues its series of roundtable interviews from last weekend's Iron Man junket with Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark and Iron Man.

Following is an edited transcription.

Question: How focused were you on how you wanted Tony Stark to come across physically and sexually?

Downey: Well, I was 41 when I was cast. I turned 42 when we were shooting the desert escape sequence and I turned 43 a couple of weeks ago. After a certain point, it starts to click along pretty quick. So I decided to make a bit of an intervention on myself and see if I could actually get in shape. When I was in my 20s, you train for six weeks and you look good for the next six years. Now, I train for six months and I look good for six minutes. The math is getting really interesting too.

As far as the other thing, I think being more still and being able to hold that idea of what's evocative to me is sexual ...regarding women and stuff, there's an ease and ability to hold your space. I had a lot of help. Jon (Favreay, director) really made this character with me.

Question: How much was it informed by the comics books and how much was it working with the writers and Jon?

Downey: It's funny to me, because I have all this reference material and sometimes people will go, "Oh, we don't need that." I'm like, "Wait a minute. People have been tweaking this character for 45 years. I think everything of value is probably right in there." But I wasn't entirely correct because we had to bring ourselves to bear. If there are accomplishments in Iron Man we used in the same sentence that Jon and I really created this third thing, which was Tony Stark. We really talked about it and really treated it like it was wildly important. It was and it is.

I don't think you get a lot of shots like this where you get a chance to do a couple more. Everyone's watching and I'm here talking to you people. I was with friends at dinner with Tobey, Leo and Jon and all these guys last night. I've been on the other side of that where you're doing press with people about a movie you hate and you know they hate and I'm like, "Why are we here?"

Question: As a kid were you into comics?

Downey: I think so. I don't qualify as a comic-book enthusiast, but I remember seeing Iron Man at Schwab's, and he was with Spider-Man and this and that and I would think, "Oh, is that a robot?"

Question: What was it about the character of Tony Stark that you liked so much?

Downey: I think it's what it is about a mythology of a genre picture like this that I thought could be fun and cool and maybe wind up turning into more than just another paycheck.

His superpower is his mind. His superpower is his ability to invent and I think that's something that all of a sudden makes it applicable to every man, woman and child who will see it. I love this phrase that "there's nothing more serious than a child at play." I know that that's true for me. I think everyone has their thing. I ask around and make it my business to ask someone, "When you're following your joy, what is it?" It tends to be one of several things but it usually has to do with tinkering with no particular aim, or it's a hobby that's not a hobby at all. It's a complete spiritual endeavor for that man or woman or that kid. I think that ultimately, that's what saves his ass, in the simplest form of the story is his ability to create out of desperation or loneliness or out of industrialism or patriotism.

Question: There was the potential for Tony to come off as a womanizer and as a jerk, yet you made him endearing, even with the one-night stand with Leslie Bibb's character.

Downey: Well the conversations that I've heard throughout my illustrious career were, "We got to make sure he's not..." and I'm like, "Well, what do you know what we have to make sure he isn't? What about the story?" The story takes care of it.

He gets such a rude awakening.. And then how do you transition? The more important thing wasn't that it doesn't matter whether he's an asshole before but if he's something other than entirely not an asshole afterward, then I can't understand that person. He can't go, (determined voice) "Pepper, we have got to have a press conference." I was like, "He doesn't want a press conference. He wants a cheeseburger." He doesn't know what he wants. He says press conference because he knows he's going to do something, but he doesn't know and he gets nervous.

I think audiences and myself as a movie lover, you forgive a lot. Look at the movies we love and look at the schmucks and bitches people are before the turn, before act two, before the resolution. You never want them to change entirely because part of the aspect of that aggression, or drive or that wit is ultimately what comes to bear at the end. From the little I know about storytelling, that seems to be useful.

Question: Regarding the improvisation and rewriting on the set, can you talk about how that went?

Downey: We put those guys (the writers) through their paces. They'd go, "Take out the trash" and I'd go, "Take out the trash? You got a better line than that." It's the first big laugh of the movie. I was riding these guys all the time while we were doing the movie. I was like, "Hey, congratulations, you got a nomination. Yeah, yeah, I'm not going to respect you. That doesn't mean anything to me." My nomination meant something to me.

There's a scene where there's a weapons test in the beginning where he goes, "Better to be feared than respected." I wrote that line. Then it was "Better to be feared than respected?" And then I said, "It it too much to ask for both?" And we wrote that down. And then Jon goes, "We have to talk about the missile. Not your ideas." I'm like, "Okay, I'll talk about the missile." Then I go on about the Jericho missile and it's the first time it's proprietarily mine and he goes, "Is that correct grammar? Proprietary repulsor technology." I go, "Yes. I know my grammar. Period or you got more to say?" He goes, "Period." I go, "O.K." "They say, 'The best weapon is the one that is used only once.'" He wrote that. I go, "Dad did it. That's how America does it." He goes, "Don't say that." I go, "I'm going to say that. That's how America does it." He goes, "Where do you end it?" I go, "It's worked out pretty good so far."

We're writing all this stuff down on this huge cue card and the poor DP, goes, "I have eight minutes of light. Your are killing me. Are you guys partying with your improv over there?" I go, "This is the scene we had." They wrote this pretty cool scene. We used half of it but we're doing this hodge-podge and putting it up on this piece of cork board and the DP goes, "I see his eyes moving." I go, "Cut! Props? Sunglasses, please." We were done and people who enjoyed the film have said that you can kind of sense it's like puppies just being born and put in your hand.

Question: There's been talk of three Iron Man films, but beyond that, there's already speculation of an Avengers film. Can you see yourself doing that somewhere down the road?

Downey: Maybe.

Question: If Jon directs?

Downey: Yeah, but I didn't know that things would end up here. I don't have this massive career overview. I'm not like, "Well in addition to this trilogy, I can see how we can cross-pollinate with another thing."

Question: You are cameoing in Hulk?

Downey: Yeah, I'm so pissed off. I went and did a scene for two hours, which they're going to run during the end credits in Hulk and everyone's like, "So, your role in Hulk?" I did it as a favor to these guys at Marvel. They're really cool, but now I have to talk about it every day. They're smart because they get that you're saying "Hulk" when we're talking about "Iron Man." They know what they're doing. They got you, buddy.