Robert Downey Jr. & Mark Ruffalo | Actors on Actors

on one of these Avengers movies you like take off your shirt or thing and you were you were you in really good shape and the director was I we got it you're like can I please stop dieting and working out now um exactly there is no one I've ever come across who is actually more anxious to not be vain past the point where it is necessary to achieve an end for their work is that a compliment it's a huge compliment [Music] Robert Tony Jr and I met in 1995 yep and I was dating an old

friend of his Sunrise quen correct who was close with my previous administration Deborah Falconer and we were over at I think well it was that beautiful kind of Spanish style in the Hills i' had that on on Grace Avenue that's right Grace Avenue and uh Sonny brought me over to meet Debbie yep and you came by and I was like holy [ __ ] that's roer Dow so like hey Robert yeah don't uh don't flatter me too much we were already hearing about this Mark Ruffalo guy who was making a splash and was going to

be on uh on the come up yeah you didn't buy that do you want me to try another tape no I I I I was just bartending at that time and uh that's what he about me but Sunny did see something in me yeah really I would say we knew each other ancillary uh reasons but we really met when Fincher cast Us in zodiac yeah and I remember Mark is doing a scene in a phone booth about take 218 and I'm visiting San Francisco cuz I'm about to start that's right and I could just see

the character that you had built and I was like oh my God I better find one that's great you are amazing the minute didn't we do a table read too yes yeah we did that table read Y and uh that was that movie was uh what a wild ride that was yeah I called Fincher recently because in retrospect everything changes it's like 15 years later you have such a different perspective on stuff you know and then for me even after working with Nolan I I developed a new respect for Fincher but I remember that was

maybe the first time we really had our feet put to the fire with an exacting director a real director who does things a certain way and I mean the result was you know people still say that scene with you and Ruffalo in the parking lot or those scenes with blah blah blah and I kind of go like I've just a vague memory of it all yeah me too but that is on the top level of so many people's uh yeah favorites and I have a story to tell okay okay we're shooting a scene in the

mail room and we've done it about 60 times 60 yeah and you know Mark's been working a bunch of days in a row I'm feeling a bit uh mischievous and he's like we got it right and I was like yeah this is ridiculous and then Fitcher says well do we got it he goes Downey come here I want the scene to start like because I want it to work I you want it to work as a wer no we don't have it and he goes Downey says we don't have it so Mark you can go

to lunch we'll scrap all those takes and we'll start over again exct me and he he he invented the delete button there was no delete button ever in digital cinema and he specifically had it invented so that he could say we're going to delete takes 1 through 45 and you're just like no no no no 38 was my baby but isn't it because some part of us just wants to be off the hot seat and done and we also know that there's always that thing of you a you want to make Mom or Dad happy

B you kind of just it's not that you want to be done it's that you want to feel that there's progress that's being made because you're helping yes and you just want someone to say that was good enough let's move on I don't do you do you feel like uh after all this time that you still have that kind of um that sort of push and pull with it of course yeah everything is it's a constant battle between uh either seeking approval or seeking my own subjective kind of like being able to maintain interest over

time you know and then we had this on this Whole Decade and a half Marvel Run where we were just looking at each other like God we're really lucky what are we doing who's a wizard who's coming from outer space which I think was another great challenge yeah from where we came from yeah I mean I'll never forget you know you we don't have to go down this road but you let's go down it you you to see this great um character in the actor who was always doing this great character work so alive so

um relatable so human to take that step into a studio World which was totally different back then than it is now and you you and I know what that is it was such a different world they didn't really cast people like like us and just to see you transform that whole concept of what a studio picture was and to elevate sort of this character work within that big tent pole system which appealed so massively to so many different people and made this space for other people like us that you know I never forget I was

like I don't know if I'm right for this and you're like come on Ruffalo we got this yeah how's that new Brownstone on the upper west side um thank you yeah oh please dude I mean who I don't know who thank who it's it's just kind of it really is odd for those uh watching at home it is a surreal experience to be sitting here with you low these years later and now to both be here on behalf of projects that I think we're so proud of and are done by such gifted filmmakers and you

know you kind of Wonder right like didn't I already have my act two isn't this the slow decline if they foed the runway so back to your first question is of course there's it's nowhere to live though right it's nowhere to live thinking your your best days your best creative moments are behind you a it's not true and B it's just debilitating yeah which is why I even brought this up okay because you know you you you you you've done it all I mean you have it all you don't have to prove anything to anybody

dad oh no go ahead well Dad even to some degree you got that at the end you know sure in the most beautiful way right and then you come and you do this part in Oppenheimer Dr Oppenheimer an honor Mr St it's pronounced St it's just another level you know it's just it's just you you break it all down you put yourself out in a way that you didn't have to we see a total character a physical change a vocal change um a different kind of guy none of the mannerisms of anything that we'd ever

seen before that you that you had perfected and had become so second nature to you and they had that kind of discipline and that kind of reach you know for for for that next thing is like really admirable and why I have always looked up to you and why I continue to look up to you and that thing still I mean talk about that like what what what was that why is that still alive I mean uh look and and then we'll move on to a far more uh interesting subject which is you and poor

things alls I know is um I got a call Chris Nolan I had I knew kind of what it was I went over to his house it was black type on red paper you know and they send it like that so you can't copy it yes it was like Sudoku to get through in 180 pages and I left there just knowing I was going to do it and everybody and you know Susan and everyone was like you need you need a challenge like this and I go I like it when everyone else is telling me

what I need and the truth be told is it all wound up to I've tried everything else how about trying to really focus on doing as little as possible just once and correspondingly I have I've known you a long time I know what you're like when [Music] you're feeling froggy and you're kind of having a good time and you're loose and I know what you like I know what you're like when you're pensive I know what you're like when you're concerned about the state of the world I know what you're like when you're comfortable with

the homeostasis but I did not know that this character existed inside of you you were in my son what I remember how apprehensive you were about doing this too just as I had all this approach anxiety you have that apprehension too for Louis straw of course because you always wonder someone else believes in you you know that person is for able you've seen their other work you go wow this is like an opportune moment and yet it's natural to have that doubt yeah and I'm interested to know for Duncan how you got past that approach

anxiety because you're just you're such a thoughtful guy and you're one of the people that I always say has such a strong and formidable moral psychology and you really don't make decisions lightly so knowing what an absolute archetype CAD misogynist self-centered shaming blaming guy but you redeemed it with this spark that was so delightful I mean I can't tell you what a joy it was watching you in this and seeing the the whole Arc the way you constructed it but I want to know what it was like before during and after it did scare the

[ __ ] out of me and I did say well you know this isn't this isn't the kind of guy I play you know I had all that I'm embarrassed to say and sunny my wife Sunrise was like you have to do this and everyone was like you have to do it just like you you have to do it but you really have to get outside of your comfort zone and you also start to doubt yourself like you were saying you know you hit 55 and you are kind of like maybe it's as good as

I'll get maybe I am on the downward slide of this thing and I also at that time was like really kind of tired of my brand or or you know whatever people you put on yourself you know and isn't it funny when our wives with flat out say just don't worry everyone else is tired of it too that's why you need to do this but with Yos and mcamera I think you obviously had just two amazing a partners and knowing how it would be executed and what was in the text and I've gotten to speak

at least to MC recently so what was that process like for you just a little bit and at what point in the shoot did you feel like oh okay I'm cooking with gas now I get it I don't even know what scene you shot first I would love to just know that well we had this amazing rehearsal period which we've never had you know and it was literally 10 days of just theater games H dancing singing uh movement um playing with each other's faces and bodies and and then playing together as a group and then

we'd probably spent maybe only 20% on the actual script and when we did read the script we were telling people you have to raise your voice anytime you lifted your hand that person have to raise their voice when they were doing the line you had to touch someone's face when you were doing the line in the middle of a line and say this is the most beautiful part of you and and it's so it just like it obliterated your ideas of what you think it should be right and the script is still there living in

you so as you're playing the character and the story is still kind of like surfacing its way up through the subconscious a little bit and you just get really free and you could go AB Broad or you could go small and no one's judging you know everyone's laughing or the nod and there's no you can't do anything wrong you can't do anything right really and then you have those great words like the script is really telling you a lot I mean who gets to say you know some the stuff I say the first day though

it was a screen test that turned into our first day yuros had build it Euros Laos had build it as a screen test but we're in full costume full set full everybody everyone's there and it's a scene between me and Willam oh will def hey yeah it's the first time it's the only scene we really have together yeah and I'm Sweating Bullets I am [ __ ] my pants I'm like what in the hell am I doing here I like that William is in full sfx makeup and you're sweating and he's sitting there like this

really and juros comes up to me he's like oh what are you doing and I said I don't know he said you you you already did this in rehearsal you know what you're doing and then he walked away and so to wait break that down what did that mean and why did it help you know you get in front of the camera and then you're just I Gotta Be You got to do something I have to do something we we're literally on the same page it's crazy I have to do something and as he was

like you don't have to do anything you did it you are it don't do anything don't do the the look and you don't have to tell us what's going on here you know just do what trust what we did and he scrapped that first day I had to re-shoot the first day great and um it wasn't a first day it was a screen test Mark you said it was a screen test wow I wish every first day was a screen test I know isn't a genius yeah I have to say I also stole from you

in this great some of Sherlock Holmes Charlie Chaplain I mean you more than any other actor you have this kind of physical Mischief you know you know the cad very well that keeps on giving is it it's beautiful well thanks for that I mean we're all always drawing from Myriad influences conscious and otherwise you know but again it's so funny how because I remember seeing you on screen first and I know right when I was starting off I seem to have this ability to say be subtle do less let the emotion come to the Forefront

sometimes I watch stuff I did when I was younger and I just go well that's that's how you should do it what the hell am I doing nowadays and obviously we fall into ruts and patterns but um you know with Nolan very much unlike Yos but also effective we were doing screen tests on IMAX which is crazy so you know that you're being captured in like a David lean sort of uh um format and some part of you is going what's this gonna be like you're just trusting the director and ho van HOA who obviously

this is what they do and when they go this looks good looks good you're kind of like all right so I'm off the hook and you would go back and sit in your set chair no you wouldn't because there were no set chairs so it was very Spartan and very like a 100 people making a watch every day so and I've had experiences like you discussed and I love that feeling like I'm Going Back to Basics and a sense of play and melding with the cast and I think because of the nature and the scope

of what Chris was doing there honestly just wasn't time for that or money or energy or whatever and the the schedule actually became even more truncated for reasons as we approached shooting so then it felt like every day we were just doing something that he knew what he was after he had written it he was directing it and it was very small amount of people on set and I like that too because that reminds me of being a kid with my dad and it's it's him and his cameraman and the editor and some college dropouts

Gaffers and like it's just kind of like let's try something you know I had no idea there there was that kind of intimacy when I think of his films I'm I'm just seeing this like Mass scale but yeah because that makes a lot of sense yeah because there are some really intimate performances in in that film and I I was wondering how did the how did they how were they able to settle down with such a big production around them because it's all he cares about and he demands and requires this almost monastic energy so

you know there are Beyond No Frills which as we know having been very well taken care of in certain situations you kind of feel like you're being stripped of your armor which he does intentionally but he also does it just so there's this it just creates a different vibe and then you're moving at such a clip that you realize if you're not getting and staying in the zone and not checking your phone and not hanging out at craft service oh there is no craft service that you're going to miss the pace of what he's doing

but at the same time I've never ever in my career worked with a less judgmental director I've been in situations that were exacting and it seemed like if I would just do it correctly one time we wouldn't have to still be here whereas that was the exact opposite he said we do all these things to give you the time you need and see what kind of time you might need or I might want and all that stuff so I felt that there was both in in poor things and I facetimed uh Emma and uh really

want to reach out to everyone but it was this thing where you all seem to have this very concise execution but you feel all the sense of play in it and you feel the you know was a really a high wire Act was it fun it must have been fun oh it was a time in my life I mean once I got to play that guy with no sense of self-consciousness or you know no sense of morality really no s no sense of any bounds whatsoever that hold us you know but you redeemed him because

there's something so lonely and it's almost like like he wants to wake up but there's something that's happening or happened and but also I've never seen you play someone who is hopelessly hung up on something he can't control and I think it was genius casting because it was this thing that I could there's a version of you where if Sunny had rejected your advances you may have pined after her for a decade totally lost I'd still be living in the garage that you found me in Oh Brother it's beautiful and um yeah it was it

was a blast it was it was such a gift and it was such a you know that moment where you're like I don't know what which way to go anymore I don't you know yeah I don't even know how I feel about this anymore I know you dude even that that senior on the bench and you're yelling the c-word and I'm just like this is not my brother here like it's just not in your wheelhouse to think to act or behave that way so were you ever feeling like if not self-conscious about a little bit

like I don't even know if this is something I want to do as an exercise because I would not want to ever normalize this yeah on screen or in my so I'm wondering well then we're also living in this just incredibly oppressive feeling time yeah and you just there's not a low a room to be a human being anymore it feels like and and that that goes from art to society to I mean it's just it just feels incredibly impressive and something about that movie is like just it's just like you know fighting out against

it and and and it's it's walking like a dis there is a disastrous self-destructive quality about it you know that felt so antithetical to the this oppressive time that we're living in even though the character is so dark and so [ __ ] up and so selfish and so all the things that were supposed not supposed to be but it's almost like you're behaviorally modeling the world that you're wondering about ex and and blowing it open yeah you know all the eyes are on us everyone's eyes are on us all the time and we have

to be a certain way and we have to look a certain way and we have to sound a certain way and our our cabinets got to be stocked with a certain kind of product and you know this sounds very mid-century to me and and it's just like you know we're we're getting squashed into these boxes that don't let us express ourselves the way that we're made to express ourselves your behavior is unconscionable we behave the food was was cing my throat the baby annoying that was my experience of getting to say the c word at

the top of my lungs getting to be a cat because it's underneath all that is still a Humanity all of that behavior there's still a Humanity underneath that right that was the thing is the fact that I'm feeling bad for you in those moments and again it's so masterfully constructed because of course it's a fable but it's it's really underselling it to call it a fable and the fact that with all of the indulgences that occur it doesn't feel exploitative of the artists of the medium it feels very much like a reverse empowerment story that

you have to tell it in almost this kind of um um fantastic ftic way to be able to get all the information that's being downloaded so there's just so much wisdom in there that's such a great way of expressing it but hats off to you dude I me hats off to you man seriously robertt it's a you're you're one of those fine artists who is constantly growing as they move through their career that's rare and you are that and I love you for it love and I you don't and you have everything Robert you know

like you you you don't need to you don't need to do that what a terrible place to be what do you mean to quote unquote if it's true to be said about any of us to have everything is that that sense of completion and also convincing myself well I should be perfectly happy as I have everything and yet you go like we know where the work is that's left to be done I know those little Corners that I sweep the dust into that I'm I spend a lot of time making sure nobody sees I know

if not the defects I know the things that I haven't really looked at so and again you know the crazy thing for me is I've been obsessed for the last five to seven years before Chris called me probably longer with uh the culture of the Cold War because I felt it was so back Upon Us yeah and so by the time Chris called I actually knew a fair amount about Lis straw because I had done a lot of deep dives into all the characters around this time because I think it informed and then led to

the Vietnam era which is the era that I SL we am older than you were born in and was everything I was seeing on TV that wasn't a Nabisco commercial or a Charlie Brown cartoon was this dark mistrust of our misplacing of our forefather's highest wishes and that kind of dark corruption and all that stuff so that has to be borne out of this cold war that is born out of looking for answers to you know the the conflict of World War II and you were you were already down that road when this came along

yeah and you know I have to credit my deceased grandfather Captain Robert Elias who I never met I had this fascination with a grandfather that I had never met and I looked at pictures of him and it reminded me of dad and my dad told me about him and he was deployed in uh Sicily in North Africa he was yeah around and but then he became a a glass manufacturer and his big claim to fame was that his family had done the glass for the Chrysler Building and um my family painted the Chrysler Building they

were construction painters so you see the touch points that's how close we are to all this right yeah and so that's you know light blue collar stuff to do and pleas his punch about that I think his his marriage to my grandmother who wound up being kind of like a Vogue model and a bit of an absentee parent to my dad no wonder uh he just kept going back overseas because he didn't want to deal with a marriage that wasn't working and so anyway always been into it but had been doing this deep dive so

then I felt like I had a um an idea of someone who might have been back in that time and then L Strauss was the president of Temple Emanuel which we've walked by in New York a bunch yeah and I just did my little loose straws tour and he's he's a kind of a sary kind of you know that's what Chris said well I'm here to tell you that I know J Robert Oppenheimer if he could do it all over he'd do it all the same what did you relate to in that I mean bro

come on I mean whether you're here or in New York we will never forget and I think still are imbued with the sense of being on the outside looking in and when will it ever happen for us and so and so is doing it and so and so is doing it and I'm going to be left behind and why even bother to dream but the truth to be told is he's both because he's a self-made guy yeah who was a lifelong civil servant and but how refreshing it was to not be playing The Genius the

gifted one all that stuff all the characters in the audience in the script imuse you with this status that you don't really possess but you presume it and I know what it's like to wish someone else hadn't embarrassed me in the street wish that I gotten past that Velvet Rope to go into that club wish that I'd gotten the call back for that part wish that I'd gotten the second date with that girl wished wished wished wished wish so um unlike straw I wasn't doing the right things while I was wondering why my life wasn't

going the right way this is someone who you know from working for President Wilson to uh the getting the Jewish refugees um the the notice they needed to be given support when that wasn't even popular in the US to this to that to this every single step of his life of course was consciously looking toward a political payoff but he really just wanted to be acknowledged by the people that he admired and so Chris constructed this story to what happens when people don't listen to each other and don't make space for each other or in

this case of someone who can't even relate to people because he's got the way to the World on his shoulders but that still doesn't mean they don't feel like hey you know what if I get a chance to stick it to you I will because you embarrassed me three times three times at my birthday party that you attended when you blow off me introducing my daughter when you uh you know give me crap in the Senate and when I don't understand this conversation you're having so anyway mid-century insanity and we're still living with it today

such a great performance man why do people not just do this all the [Music] time if we want to talk about courage Under Fire the fact that 11 seconds into this performance you are buck naked and going for it in a way that again wasn't gratuitous but it was very um how was that and is that really how you get down um I don't know Robert that's the that that to me is the ultimate risk it's so uh it was the one part of the the thing I was like do I have to what are

we gonna do with this you know all I could hear is like nobody wants to see your old ass anymore you know maybe you shouldn't be doing movies like that anymore I mean it's my least favorite part of it but you know he's I also saw it as very comedic you know and also like an extension of the physical comedy that we were already sort of finding so it was just another way to tell story I just want to say this too because knowing you forever on one of these Avengers movies you like take off

your shirt or thing and you were you were you in really good shape and the director was I I don't know if it was uh we it might have been Jos it might have been the Russ but anyway like we got it you're like can I please stop dieting and working out now um exactly there is no one I've ever come across who is actually more anxious to to not be vain past the point where it is necessary to achieve an end for their work is that a compliment it's a huge compliment but I got

to say A you look pretty bangable to me in case you were wondering thanks man because the guy I mean I mean yeah yeah it was pretty good he is who he is and by the way the costumes I don't even want to we start going down the road of just like all of the Delights of the department heads and it was shot in Budapest in Budapest right so you get all those artisans and you're all there and just you're getting so much value but it's still this kind of Fantastical backgrounds but then everything you're

physically seeing is just so fine down to the detail I mean dude I'm just look I'm literally looking at the back of some of your jackets going God I've never been able to wear a jacket with a cool cut like that I was like do you know I had an ass pad in I had I had my legs were like 4 in bigger I my calf was four I mean he really wanted the silhouette so I was wearing a corset with like shoulder pads so I was so squeezed in beautiful and you know that whole

that was the corset that was the the high collar it was the whole thing are you wearing a corset in one of the scenes yes I wearing a corset when I take off the and that's Duncan wears a corset you know was like kind of yeah I mean that stuff was it was even more dream I I he wanted me to look like a bird so I had this I had this whole built out chest piece that I was wearing did that it never made it because it was just it was too much right but

the big ass pads the leg pads the thigh pads the the calf pads those were all playing so when you look at that and you're like wow he looks great now you know I'm I was just wearing what the Avengers where but I'm underneath my clothes honestly I didn't I didn't expect that there was any augmentation going on so it was done really well yeah but the bird chest would have been too much but I think I know what he was going for particularly with all the Hybrids that are occurring in the movie and the

nature of it you know it's just to tweak it but I love it when a director has an instinct that they go I have this Instinct I'm sticking to it I'm sticking to it I'm wrong and they dump it that's when I begin to really TR someone is they are changeable and they're not fixed they're not obsessive they're actually exploring you know and Yos we explored all the time it was all an exploration I just want to say before we run out on this card so many of your scenes are with Emma Stone and I

pretty obsessed with her now I've always thought she was great but this is just a this is just such a defining moment as an actor for her watching her and you have the joy and also the you know the the ability it seems like you guys just have this you had great chemistry thanks and what was all that that whole Arc like and supporting her in this well I I mean I think she's one of the great and still like developing into how great she's going to be you know I'm insecure and she she gets

that about me and and at the same time like so nurturing to me and and we we were kind of playing that part with each other cuz you know in a lot of ways this could have been disastrous we right on the razor's Edge it could easily fall over you know and so we both had a lot of um fear and and insecurity about it and and so we were just found ourselves really taking care of each other but then also all that play like Emma laughs her laugh like travels the world you know when

she laughs it comes up to your feet and Bubbles up to your body and the next thing you know you're just lit up with that and it's and and to have that we know every time every take we're both sort of laughing and playing and seeing how far we could push it and and um and turning into these like there's just a lot of space to just it was just very safe between us and so to turn into these two people to come back like Mark and Emma and then all of a sudden you know

become Bella and Duncan it's great man there's such amazing just physical choreography between the two of you the choreography that it seemed like some of it was managed but a lot of it was discovered but you can tell when you have a good dance partner because it just seemed like you guys really knew how to do the to share the stage and that came a lot from our rehearsal because we were doing all this movement stuff together you know right and so we were moving as a as a troop we were moving as one and

then as individuals within that troop we were sort of a lot of it was was getting in the sink was was listening to somebody's body you know so you'd have an exercise where every movement that I made you had to move your arm like that you know so it just be like and then turn around and so you someone else is conducting you you know and that that really like that kind of connection it it plays you know you pick that up and then you take it with you particularly on the boat in the dining

hall that whole sequence which to me in and of itself is like a little one act play it's showing about how you want to be perceived and how she's not playing along and then by the time you're just smacked down on you know all these guys I was like oh my God how much of that really was the stunts all that stuff was choreographed cuz some of it felt just like safe chaos it was safe chaos okay we would try to choreograph it with a stunt man and your girls would be like no this this

is no no no and he's like what would you what would you you come in you you what do you do and and he would ask me and I be like oh I think this and he's like okay I like that and what if he gets on you here and and and and we just sort of made it up and in the end that kind of tug of war thing that was just background people run you know they he said you come in and grab them and you help them and and you fight and whatever

happens we're going to shoot it that's why it was a wide shot you know and it was all we knew is that me and her that that Duncan and Bella would be doing this tug of war and these guys would try to be pulling us apart and I'd be fighting them off and then coming back and it and it just it was chaos wow but we learned how to be safe with each other and we had the dance which was choreographed but he didn't want it to feel choreographed so every director always says that and

then they wind up choreographing choreographing and he was throw he was just adamantly throwing that out wow we have our Decades of Marvel which is its own style right you have Iron Man Tony Stark who is its own style and it's so different than STW sure and how do you make that transition I mean and and yeah how how do you go about that because it takes I mean what I when I see your work in that I'm like that is such a disciplined thoughtful uh unique expression of what Robert does and so different than

what he had done up until that point you know I've always wondered why you didn't involve him in the Manhattan Project greatest scientific mind of our time I'm going to build on something you've been saying of going back to that kind of like Theater Camp play but also knowing the discipline of theater you know sometimes you're doing theater so long that by the time you're doing film you're too big sometimes you're doing film so long that by the time you're doing theater you're too small um and then sometime you know what I mean it was

always kind of like trying to calibrate just to keep yourself interested and I just remember going this is a lot of words and they're really specific and they're really important so I just went back to like the first time I had to do a onea player when I was doing ja Theater in Rochester and I was like just get off book and I obsessively went into a mode where I was name rank and serial number if you woke me up in the middle of the night I would know it and the last time I really

really did that was for the Iron Man screen test when there were these three scenes that I could have been off book in two days but I just went crazy on them for two and a half months this time I needed the three to five months so I again like theater I started with the words and I knew that I wanted to do enough physically to be different I knew that in black and white getting the right shape would be good and and losing the right amount of weight and moving a certain way and again

like I know this kind of person I know the political animal and then it's just watching what else is going on like watching Killian like okay that's Mozart so that's what he's doing and I have to to be this other thing so it was also great because I got a lot of perspective on you know people through the years coming into play Oh The Great Tony Stark I mean it's all you know we're all kind of doing the same thing and I I hate it when people poo poo a genre because they're all hard and

they're all high art when they're done well but I just remember that it was the text it was really thinking about he didn't want voices he didn't want accents he didn't want makeup he didn't want anything yeah he wanted the very least amount of interaction with the department heads as possible but even by the time you're were going on set and they're like filling in my earring hole with uh with stuff just so that you couldn't see in an extreme closeup because he wouldn't have one I was like God they're really paying attention to detail

here so why don't I and it was really frame because you know me I I'm I'm very ectomorphic I don't like to be constrained I know and it's all Chris wanted so so I thought well this is going to be hard but easy but you back to that discipline it's transformative I didn't see Robert Downey Jr in there I didn't see and you know I didn't see that and it was so exciting and it's so interesting because it was that containment you have the comedy the movement I remember every time we work together you you

you have prop set you have this you're moving from there to there to there it's b boom boom and it's electrifying but just to for you to just and be that still and I love what you say about learning those lines like that because that's man what a great plan well I mean also in the Marvel like everything might change or we're talking to a tennis ball or I mean you and I the science Bros we would have these long passages about absolute gobbley but still it's important to us cuz you know it's important to

the characters we didn't know what that was be a little hard to dig in I mean we would just drive each other insane on set going like why can't I retain this but again we know when it's time to tighten things up a little bit um anyway I found great joy in it and it was this 50 year circle of going back to Santa Fe where I was with my dad when he shot this film called greaser's Palace yeah I stayed right 50 steps from the place that I remember the the crew meeting up to

you know hang out when we weren't shooting and going and seeing Los Alamos that didn't actually have any scenes there but shooting in the Baton Memorial uh building and just going in all these places you know it was all done very practically and I've said this before but it was this moment where we're shooting something in Pasadena and and and Nolan just put this mag of a 70 millimeter I didn't hear that yeah they were changing out mags and he was like no hold this and he just put it on my lap and I was

just like because you know film yeah I love I will continue to love and I'm happy to eventually and in some way re-engage with sci-fi fantasy it's got its own upside but anything that over time takes you further and further away from the experience of just a hardware of what it is we do yeah man which is these machines these Souls that sensitive metal which is why it was also beautiful just to be shooting on film not digital I got used to digital after after uh zodiac because I knew if fer is doing it it's

not going away yeah and is it more efficient yes but you lose those natural rhythms of changing out the mag and yeah man there was just those little there those little times and everyone kind of socialized and you know even The Clapper loader knew like he was kind of like hitting the the brake Bell or if not the brake Bell it was like running a a metronome on The rhythms of this mode of working so agre it was all that stuff you know you know we have this um we H we have the Marvel Universe

we we we have the we we we have all of this product that is either already part of something or a brand and then you have Oppenheimer come out which is complet complely original kind of source material and it explodes in a time where people are like really wondering what is Cinema now after Marvel after franchises you know after IP what is Cinema now and what did you feel and think about that it's kind of exceptional looking back now I think about Robert patson being in tenet which I thought wow it's another great Chris Nolan

movie it happened at the worst possible time there was the fracturing with the studio all this stuff and patson gives them unwrap oppenheimer's letters these moments in life where you realiz the Inception of something occurred in the most organic way and also patson and tenant was an incredible departure for him yes so this incredible departure from one of our younger peers turns into him making a personal gift to arguably one of the greatest directors of of his generation turns into him deciding that it's sticking with him and then I always wonder if something about the

organic nature of how something starts and how pure it is and the confidence of the people who bring It Forward is uh isn't a great contributor and then there's just that thing Zeitgeist whatever you want to call it and honestly I would be every bit as proud if it hadn't broken even or just done pretty good but I think the great thing is it speaks to our taste the audience's taste for novelty and for craftsmanship which is again why I'm telling you I mean poor things is already making a splash as it's on the horizon

of coming out and whether this airs but it'll be after people have already seen this I mean your next buddy that's all I got to say we'll see well it's it's it's so fantastic thank yeah some people say I want to know if it' be forever when I go then maybe you don't know [Laughter] [Music] everyone [Music] n