Robert Downey Jr. Explains He Did Some of The Best Work He Will Ever Do at Marvel and Why It Went Unnoticed

Robert Downey Jr. recently appeared on Rob Lowe’s Literally! podcast, and while there he opened up about his time playing Tony Stark aka Iron Man for Marvel Studios. At one point during the interview, Downey Jr.’s phone started ringing, which prompted Lowe to say: “Is that some Marvel shit? Are you going to break some stories here?”

Downey Jr. responded, “Not just yet,” and then Lowe went on a little tirade about Marvel and how they’ve F –ked everything up. He also offers Downey Jr. some advice on what he should do in this situation, saying:

“You know what I say. That phone is going to ring, baby, and I want to be on that call. I want to be negotiating for you. I know what your deal is. Here’s what you do. You go, ‘I’ll come back and I’ll play Tony Stark for you guys again since you fucked everything up. But I want a gazillion dollars. I know what that number should be, and I want first dollar gross of every ensuing movie. That’s what I would do.”

Downey Jr. laughed off Lowe’s comments and said, “That sounds quite hostile!” Downey Jr. went on to talk about life after Marvel, admitting that his film Dolittle “just didn’t work,” and how he felt humbled. He also said that he did some of his best work at Marvel, and explains why he thinks it went unnoticed:

“I felt so exposed after being in the cocoon of Marvel where I think I did some of the best work I will ever do, but it went a little bit unnoticed because of the genre. [I] did myself a favor, because the rug was pulled so definitively out from underneath me and all the things that I was leaning on as opposed to what my understanding of confidence and security was, boy did they evaporate. And it rendered me teachable.”

Downey Jr. was freakin’ great as Iron Man, every time he played the character he delivered a great performance, but he’s definitely done better. Just to name a couple, Chaplin and Zodiac are a couple of my favorite performances from the actor.

What do you think about Robert Downey Jr.’s comments?