One of the most talked about movies of the year is about to hit theaters and the comic book frenzy for the big screen Iron Man is kicking into overdrive with geeky bliss. When actor Robert Downey Jr. was cast as wealthy industrialist Tony Stark in Jon Favreau's translation of Iron Man, there weren't too many fans that complained. In fact, Downey's casting only piqued everyone's curiosity since he's already considered to be one of the best actors of our time.

Leading up to the release of Iron Man, which hits theaters on May 2, Robert Downey Jr. sat down with journalists at the film's New York press junket to talk superheroes, the Iron Man script, the physical challenges of taking on the role, how Jeff Bridges is a lot like "The Dude" meets Dr. Doom, and what will keep him interested in future Iron Man stories and the character Tony Stark.

Were you an Iron Man fan from the get-go?

ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: I was aware of him in the magazine kiosks and stuff. But what I’ve been loving hearing lately is, "Well, Iron Man was always a second tier superhero," and this and that, and I’m like, "Ah, the operative word... was."

Was there any hesitation in taking this? Was it something you thought, "Now it's time for me to be a superhero?"

DOWNEY JR.: I met Jon [Favreau] and the guys down at Marvel and then I realized that we were talking about this property. In the hallway on the way out I’m looking at these posters they have with their films that have done rather well and the video game section and the merchandizing, kids toys, books and the things, and I’m going, "Wow, this could be cool." Then I was like, "Jon, you know, I think I’m the guy for this role." And he goes, "Yeah, I think you’d be perfect, but I don’t think it’s going to happen." And I said, "Well, I think it’s going to happen and if it comes down to a screen test let me know, it would be a pleasure." And that’s how it went down.

The script has four writers. What made it work for you?

DOWNEY JR. Well, um, having the guys who had done Children of Men was helpful. They had a kind of a dark sensibility, a good story and a sense of humor too. But often, on the day of the set, what we’d find is we had a good scene but now that we were really there and doing it, and as long as there were $165 million that was going down the tubes if we didn’t make something entertaining and cool, we would do what Jon and I would do anyway, no matter what kind of movie, which is enhance it and improvise and think of new ways to incorporate different kind of sensibilities into it.

How physically demanding was this role for you?

DOWNEY JR. The physical part was, for some reason or other, I was training for a couple of months before and I had been in martial arts for five years now. I was kind of up to speed and I figured if I was going to try and look like I could actually be in shape, I might as well do it before I was too old for it to be feasible to matter. It was a physically demanding part, so the training helped a lot. Sometimes I think you just train to be able to survive what you’re going to have to be able to do on the job.

Talk about that improvised scene you did regarding the cheeseburger?

DOWNEY JR. Well, what happened they lit the scene and I said, "Uh oh." And Jon said, "Downey, what is it now? We have to shoot something!" I said, "I hate this scene, where it’s like, ‘Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark,’ and everyone’s standing and I see this scene and I hate it already. I’ve seen this scene." And he said, "Alright, what do you want to do?" I said, "What if--and this also starts from the scene before where Tony says, ‘Pepper, I’m back and I want to have a press conference,’" I said, "I’m not going to say that. I’ll say some other stuff and then mix that in with it and go, ‘Godammit, Pepper, it’s time for a press conference.’" I don’t think--he doesn’t even know what he’s going to say. I said, "Look, there’s two things I want, because it’s the truth, I hear when people get out of the joint or after they do long stints, and that’s what happened to me after we did this long tour, I came back and they said, ‘Anything Mr?’ I said, "A cheeseburger, and I want to have a press conference." He got what he wanted and I didn’t have to hate it.

Was it important to you that this superhero was different in that he will tell you his secret identity?

DOWNEY JR. We had no idea how it was going to end. We just figured by the time it got there it didn’t figure for him to be like, "Go out and tell the cover story," and wink in the camera. We tried to do it so counter intuitively up to that point. Jon said, "I think you just let the cat out of the bag," because we took all these things in a very simple and kind of well-plotted origin story, and we tried to flip the expectations as often as we could.

Talking Tony Stark with Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. Page 2