A decade ago, Iron Man was a relative unknown to most movie audiences, especially when compared to the likes of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man. Fast-forward to 2016 and Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark is leading the most profitable movie franchise in history, an enterprise built on the strength of the actors exceptional performance as Iron Man. Though in many ways a perfect mixture of talent, luck and good timing, Downey's charming, brilliantly infuriating work in the role should not be discounted: his performance is imbued with far greater depth and nuance than many recognise. It seems unfair to simply say that Downey is "just playing himself", when there's so much more to both Downey the man and Stark the character. Over the course of three Iron Man movies and two Avengers films, Tony Stark and Shellhead have been developed far more successfully than any other MCU character, in large part due to Downey's well-rounded work that seeks to enhance the solid scripts he (usually) works with. Here are eight little-known tics that made Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man perfect...
8. The Real-Life Parallels
Now that Robert Downey, Jr. has been Iron Man for eight years, it's easy to forget that just eight years prior to snagging the Iron Man gig, he was in jail for drug offences, and spent a good portion of the early 2000s fighting to get back up to a prominent position in the industry. At the time of Iron Man's release, there was much press about Downey digging deep into his own well of personal demons, considering that Tony Stark is himself haunted by substance abuse issues and deep psychological turmoil. The movie's director, Jon Favreau, has freely admitted that this is largely why Downey, Jr. got the job. Though the substance issues being written into the movie is a scripting flourish, it's Downey's evident drawing upon his own life experience that makes it feel real: the subtle sadness, and then the psychological distress of having the arc reactor in his chest and finally the anxiety attacks in Iron Man 3. None of this would feel quite so authentic had Downey not lived through similar situations himself, and so his own turmoil informs the role in ways that are rare for a blockbuster movie franchise.