Iron Man's Jeff Bridges Says Project Was "Wonderful" but Drove Him "Absolutely Crazy"
With Iron Man being the first official entry in Marvel Studios' Marvel Cinematic Universe, star Jeff Bridges has the distinction of being the franchise's first villain, though by paving new ground in the world of comic book movies, it presented the performer with some truly challenging moments. Bridges recently recounted to Vanity Fair that the process of bringing his Obidiah Stone to life for the film was easier said than done, as he collaborated with costar Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau to get a script they were proud of, only for Marvel Studios to intervene with their own ideas, as they knew just how much was riding on the effectiveness of the project.
"It was Marvel's first adventure into making movies," Bridges shared with the outlet. "It was so lucky to have Jon on there and Downey, because both of them are terrific improvisers, and we spent a couple of weeks working on the script and rehearsing together, because we didn't like the original script and we thought, 'Oh yeah, we fixed this, fixed that.'"
He continued, "And then came the first day of shooting, and Marvel kind of threw out our script that we had been working on, said, 'No, that's no good. It's got to be this and that.' And so there was a lot of confusion about what our script was, what we were gonna say, you know? And we'd spend hours in one of our trailers going over lines, and saying, 'Oh, you play my part or I'll play your part,' exploring how we were going to do it."
The collaborations weren't just between those involved in the project, with Favreau having also reached out to his peers about developing the script.
"Jon would say, 'Oh, I know a writer. Let me see he may have some ideas...' Meanwhile, the crew is in the sound stage, tapping their feet saying, 'When are we going to get this thing going?'" Bridges recalled.
Despite those setbacks, Bridges noted that it was his own mental approach to the project that had to be tweaked, given that he'd never had an experience quite like it.
"It drove me absolutely crazy until I made a slight adjustment in my brain," Bridges admitted. "And that adjustment was, 'Jeff, just relax. You're making a $200-million student film. Just relax and have fun.' And that kind of did the trick because here I get to play with these two incredible artists and just jam, and that's what we ended up doing."
He added, "For my money, that's the best Marvel movie ... I know I'm biased, of course. But man, I thought it was a wonderful experience."
Stay tuned for details on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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