We chatted with Robert Downey Jr. yesterday, at the Iron Man press junket in New York! Check out the interview below, and be sure to keep coming back to FEARnet every day this week--each day we'll post an interview with a different member of the Iron Man cast, including Terrence Howard (interview here), Gwyneth Paltrow (interview here) and Jeff Bridges [interview here]! (And don't forget to check out our exclusive video interviews with the Iron Man cast, our review of Iron Man and our interview with director Jon Favreau, interview here)!

How focused were you on how you wanted to portray Tony Stark physically?

Downey: Well, I turned 41 when I was cast, I turned 42 when we were shooting the desert escape sequence, and I turned 43 a few weeks ago. After a certain point, it starts to click along pretty quick. So I decided to make an intervention and see if I could actually get in shape. When I was in my twenties...you train for six weeks and you look good for the next six years. Now, I train for six months and I look good for six minutes. The math is getting really interesting.

How much of this character was informed by the comic books?

Downey: It?s funny to me, because I have all this reference material, and people will go, ?Oh, we don?t need that.? I?m like, ?Wait a minute. People have been tweaking this character for forty-five years. I think everything of value is probably right in there.? But I wasn?t entirely correct, because we had to bring ourselves to bear. If there are accomplishments in Iron Man, Jon and I really created this third thing, which was Tony Stark. We really talked about it and really treated it like it was wildly important. It was and it is. I don?t think you get a lot of shots like this where you get a chance to do a couple more. Everyone?s watching and I?m here talking to you people... I was with friends at dinner, with Tobey, Leo and Jon and all these guys last night? I?ve been on the other side of that, where you?re doing press with people about a movie you hate and you know they hate, and I?m like, ?Why are we fucking here??

As a kid were you into comics?

Downey: I think so. I wasn?t a comic-book enthusiast. But I remember seeing Iron Man at Schwab?s, and he was with Spider-Man and this and that, and I would think, ?Oh, is that a robot??

So what was it about the character of Tony Stark that you like?

Downey: I think it?s what it is about a mythology, about a genre picture like this, that I thought could be fun and cool and maybe wind up turning into more than another paycheck. His superpower is his mind. His superpower is his ability to invent and I think that?s something that all of a sudden makes it applicable to every man, woman and child who will see it. I love this phrase, that ?there?s nothing more serious than a child at play.? I know that that?s true for me. I think everyone has their thing. I ask around and make it my business to ask someone, ?When you?re following your joy, what is it?? It tends to be several things, but it usually has to do with tinkering with no particular aim. Or, it?s a hobby that?s not a hobby or all. It?s a complete spiritual endeavor for that man or woman or kid. I think that ultimately, that?s what saves his ass in the simplest form of the story--his ability to create out of desperation or loneliness, or out of industrialism or patriotism.

There was a potential for him to come off as a womanizer and a jerk, and even with that there was something endearing about him. Was there any thought about making him this or that?

Downey: Well, the conversations that I?ve heard throughout my illustrious career were, ?We got to make sure he?s not?? and I?m like, ?Well, what do you know what we have to make sure he isn?t? What about the story?? The story takes care of it. He gets his ass kicked so hard. And then how do you transition? The more important thing wasn?t whether he was an asshole before. But if he?s something other than entirely not an asshole after that, then I can?t understand that person. He can?t go, ?Pepper, we have got to have a press conference.? I was like, ?He doesn?t want a press conference. He wants a cheeseburger.? He doesn?t know what he wants. He says press conference because he knows he?s going to do something, but he?s nervous. I think audiences, myself as a movie lover, you forgive a lot. Look at the movies we love and look at the schmucks and bitches people are before the turn, act two, or the resolution. You never want them to change entirely because part of the aspect of that aggression, drive or that wit is ultimately what comes to bear at the end. From the little I know about storytelling that seems to be useful.

How much did you really want to put the ?pre-changed? guy in the character, because he did have a history of womanizing and drinking. Was it hard to select which of those things to add in?

Downey: By the way, in that scene with Leslie Bibb, one of my favorite things that we had to cut out: we go to bed and she?s all pissed off and I wanted to say, ?Let it all out. Let it all out. I know you hate me.? Jon was like, ?You?re talking enough. You can?t improvise everything everytime. Shut up, we got two hours and I got five shots.? I was like, ?All right.? She rolls off the bed and in one of these takes, and she did this [makes motion], and I turned my head the way I said I would; and she just clocked me in the jaw. You actually heard it through the body mic--and I was like, ?Argh!? They took the laugh from after the thing.

I always think you can go further. At the same time, my sensibilities and the sensibilities Jon has, which is so sophisticated, and so able to say, ?That?s a cool moment for you. That?s a cool moment for adults but that?s not something kids want to see.? It doesn?t matter if kids can?t see it. If it?s important to the movie, we?ll take the edge off it. He was always checking and balancing everything.

Regarding the improvisation and rewriting on the spot, can you talk about how that went? Was there anything that worked out of that?

Downey: We put [the writers] through their paces. They?d go, ?Take out the trash,? and I?d go, "'Take out the trash'?! You got a better line than that? It?s the first big laugh of the movie!" I was riding these guys all the time while we were doing the movie. I was like, ?Congratulations, you got a [Oscar] nomination. Yeah, yeah, I?m not going to respect you. That doesn?t mean anything to me.? My nomination meant something to me. [Laughs.] These poor guys and me and Jon... There?s a scene where there?s a weapons test in the beginning where he goes, ?Better to be feared than respected.? I wrote that line. Then it was ?'Better to be feared than respected'? Why not have both?? Then Jon goes, ?We have to talk about the missile. Not your ideas.? I?m like, ?Okay, I?ll talk about the missile.? Then I go on about the Jericho missile, and the first time it?s "proprietarily mine." He goes, ?Is that correct grammar? 'Proprietary repulsor technology'?? I go, ?Yes. I know my grammar. Period, or you got more to say?? He goes, ?Period.? I go, ?Okay.? They say, ?The best weapon is the one that is used only once.? He wrote that. I go, ?That's how Dad did it. That?s how America does it...? He goes, ?Don?t say that.? I go, ?I?m going to say that. 'That?s how America does it...'? He goes, ?Where do you end it?? I go, ?And it?s worked out pretty well so far.? We?re writing all this stuff down on this huge cue card and Matty, the poor DP, goes, ?I have eight minutes of light. Are you guys partying with your improv over there?? I go, ?This is the scene we had. Fergus and Ostby wrote this pretty cool scene.? We used half of it but we?re doing this hodge podge and putting it up on this piece of cork board, and Matty the DP goes, ?I see his eyes moving.? I go, ?Cut! Props? Sunglasses, please.? We were done, and people who enjoyed the film have said that you can kind of sense it?s like puppies just being born.

Do you see yourself doing an Avengers film somewhere down the road?

Downey: Maybe.

If Jon directs?

Downey: Yeah, but I didn?t know that things would end up here. I don?t have this massive career overview. I?m not like, ?Well, in addition to this trilogy, I can see how we can cross-pollinate with another thing.?

Yet you are cameoing in The Incredible Hulk.

Downey: Yeah. I?m so fucking pissed off. I went and did a scene for two hours which they?re going to run during the end credits in Hulk, and everyone?s like, ?So, your role in Hulk?? I did it as a favor to these guys at Marvel. They?re really cool, but I have to talk about it every fucking day. But they?re smart, because they get that you?re saying ?Hulk? when we?re talking about Iron Man. They know what they?re doing.

Sorry, man. [Laughs.]

Downey: That's alright.

This movie will probably make more than most of the movies you?ve done, like Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. Knowing that a lot of younger people will be seeing you for the first time, what movies would you recommend them seeing from your career?

Downey: I would start in the order of which I was making films. I don?t know. That?s probably something I should spend more time thinking about. I would start with kids seeing The Shaggy Dog. I just contradicted myself.

If you could have a superhero power, what would you choose and why?

Downey: How do you feel about asking me that question? Let me answer that by not answering it? Statistically, women want to fly. Men want to be invisible. But my one superpower would be to go through an entire press day in four seconds.

How was working with Terrence and Gwyneth?

Downey: Terrence was fantastic. We really got close playing these guys who were really close and it?s been an interesting thing, because you tend to think you?re making friends, and there are people you really feel a brotherhood with, and he?s one of them. Gwyneth is absolutely crazy about me.

The chemistry is pretty awesome throughout.

Downey: It?s rare that that happens. Sometimes, you think, "She?s hot, she?s smart and she?s cool," and then you go on set and she?s just talks like a wench and you think, ?I can?t believe I got to spend the next couple of months with this bitch.? Gwyneth was a very corrective experience for me.

Are you going to be doing more writing? You seem to have an affinity for it.

Downey: Yeah, I?ll do more writing. Hell, they should probably credit me on this one for it!