Robert Downey Jr. credits his time as Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for his investment career. The beloved actor talked to LinkedIn Editor-in-Chief Dan Roth on the This is Working podcast. During that conversation, the Iron Man star talked about his investments with The Footprint Coalition. He lays a lot of that early MCU building shaped the way he looks at business now. It’s hard to imagine now, but 13 years ago, there was no giant interconnected universe of Marvel Studios. Kevin Feige dreamed this blueprint up with the staff of the company. Now, multiple other studios are trying to establish a similar foothold in the entertainment industry. Downey thinks that a lot of businesses operate under the same principles. Namely, one person comes up with a great idea, and then other entities try to iterate on that premise. Over time, something that was regarded as groundbreaking and completely left-field becomes standard operating procedure for millions of people.
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“If I learned anything in my years with Marvel, unfortunately, until some utopian next chapter, money moves the needle. It leverages innovation to become commonplace,” Downey explained. “There was no Marvel Cinematic Universe 13 years ago, and a small group of motivated people bet on each other and then worked our asses off for a decade.”
In some further comments, the Iron Man star also argues that his association with the Marvel character has only helped his relationships with the sustainable investment industry.
The actor said, “For me the future is uncertain, but the credibility gap was a bit quicker only because of this strange association with this certain character I played who understood tech and understood how to put it to work for creative and existential problem-solving.”
Recently, Clark Gregg talked about how the Marvel star was the missing piece to make Iron Man really amazing. He told the hosts of At Home with The Creative Coalition all about it.
“From the minute I saw that Jon Favreau was directing this movie of Iron Man with Robert Downey as that character with Gwenyth [Paltrow] and Jeff Bridges, I knew that if Robert was able to show up and, you know, become the talent that we’ve all hoped he would be able to be — you know, with the addiction issues — that it would be one of the greatest versions, the best possible version that could have ever been. And he really, really nailed it.”
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