By the way, the “I am Iron Man” line from 2008 was, as previously written in the pages of /Film, improvised by Robert Downey, Jr.
The CinemaBlend article notes that the last killing blow scene in “Endgame” was, in fact, reshoots, and could have been the last scene shot for the movie. Downey’s objections to saying “I’m Iron Man” again had less to do with the line itself or the context of the movie, but with the fact that he was essentially exhausted. He had appeared as Tony Stark in nine feature films and was ready to finally relax and get out of the character’s headspace.
Joe Russo recalled the dinner where he recounted the line to his actor and was lucky enough to be within earshot of legendary producer Joel Silver, the producer of movies like “Xanadu” and some of the most notable action movies in history. 1980s (“Predator,” “Commando,” “Lethal Weapon,” “Die Hard,” “Road House,” and “Demolition Man” are all on his resume.) Russo welcomed the encounter, as it appeared to be Silver’s insistence that got Downey to repeat the 11-year improvisation. russo said:
“I had dinner with [Downey] like two weeks before we were supposed to shoot. And he was like, ‘I don’t know. I really don’t want to go back and get into that emotional state. It will take… it’s hard. And crazy enough, Joel Silver, the producer, was at the dinner. He is an old friend of Robert’s. And Joel jumps up and says, ‘Robert, what are you talking about? That’s the greatest line I’ve ever heard! You have to say this line! You have to do this!’ So thank goodness Joel Silver was at the dinner, because he helped us convince Robert to do that line.”
