I could tell you that Iron Man (2008) began filming without a finished script.
I could tell you that almost all of the dialogue in the film was improvised.
I could tell you that the filmmakers merely had a rough outline of the story.
I could tell you all those things. But no number of words I bang out can do justice to the situation.
For that, I turn to Jeff “The Dude” Bridges (Obadiah Stane), who said of the film:
“They had no script, man.”
They had no script, man! While that might be a slight exaggeration on El Duderino’s part, it’s not far off from the truth, either.
We would show up for big scenes every day and we wouldn’t know what we were going to say.
We would have to go into our trailer and work on this scene and call up writers on the phone, ‘You got any ideas?’ Meanwhile, the crew is tapping their foot on the stage waiting for us to come on.
Jeff Bridges[1]
The reason for Iron Man’s skeletal script was that most of the pre-production was focused on visualising the action sequences.
So when it came time to filming, the actors and Jon Favreau came up with the dialogue on the spot, much to the chagrin of Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow, who liked being prepared.
As ever, the Duder rolled with it, treating the project as a “$200 million student film.” Life goes on, man.
Sometimes there's a man. I won't say a hero, because, what's a hero? But sometimes, there's a man.
And I'm talking about Robert Downey Jr here. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place.
He fits right in there. And that's Robert Downey Jr in 2007, filming Iron Man without a script.
He not only survived but thrived in the situation. He would request for multiple retakes of the same scene, banging out improvised lines with every take, leaving Paltrow stunned since she couldn’t keep up with him.
Among other things, Downey Jr. wrote the speech Stark delivers while showcasing the Jericho missile.
It was his idea to have Stark hold the news conference with everyone sitting on the floor and most significantly, he ad-libbed the now immortal “I am Iron Man” line at the very end.
Kevin Feige approved it, and it changed the entire course of the then-nascent Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Things came full circle in 2020. “And I am Iron Man,” Tony Stark’s emphatic retort to Thanos, wasn’t in the script, and neither was it shot during principal photography.
Tony used to not say anything in that moment. And we were in the editing room going, ‘He has to say something. This a character who has lived and died by quips.’ And we just couldn’t, we tried a million different last lines.
Thanos was saying ‘I am inevitable.’ And our editor Jeff Ford, who’s been with us all four movies and is an amazing storyteller, said, ‘Why don’t we just go full circle with it and say, And I am Iron Man.’ And we’re like, ‘Get the cameras! We have to shoot this tomorrow.’
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