Reveals His Best Scenes Were Left On The Cutting Room Floor
Iron Man 2 was an undeniable hit at the box-office, though many fans felt short changed with the story that was in part skewed to help Marvel launch their spin-off flicks. While those efforts certainly paid off with ‘Thor‘ and ‘Captain America‘, and will most likely reap similar returns with Josh Whedon‘s upcoming ‘The Avengers‘ flick, Mickey Rourke is now voicing his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the sequel and how most of his best work never made the final cut.
Marvel’s business model is one not to be questioned – what they want they get – and even though the success of the first Iron Man was largely contributed to the efforts of Jon Favreau, by the time the second flick was ready to get made, the studio flexed their respective muscle and refused to give new deals to the director or it’s supporting players.
For actor Terrence Howard, his expectation to receive a heftier paycheck was not met with open arms and his part was summarily recast – which most people seemed not to notice. As for director Favreau, he also wanted a larger piece of the pie to which the studio was not receptive and this almost cost him the gig. Their eventual acceptance of his terms also came at a professional price, he was basically forced to accept their changes and this weakness on his part is said to have caused a rift in his working relationship with star Robert Downey Jr. who pulled out of ‘Cowboys and Aliens’, and as for Mickey Rourke – his desire to help create a multi-layered character was wasted on the need to have a straight forward narrative that was big on effects, but lacking in substance.
Speaking with Crave Online, he talked about developing his character for Iron Man 2:
[W]hen I did Ivan Vanko in Iron Man, I fought… You know, I explained to Justin Theroux, to the writer, and to [Jon] Favreau, that I wanted to bring some other layers and colors [to the charater], not just make this Russian a complete murderous revenging bad guy. And they allowed me to do that. Unfortunately, the [people] at Marvel just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy, so most of the performance ended up on the floor.
He discussed the lengths he went to develop a complex character that was seemingly lost in the final cut:
[It’s] ****ing too bad, but it’s their loss. If they want to make mindless comic book movies, then I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want to have to care so much and work so hard, and then fight them for intelligent reasoning, and just because they’re calling the shots they… You know, I didn’t work for three months on the accent and all the adjustments and go to Russia just so I could end up on the floor. Because that can make somebody say at the end of the day, oh **** ‘em, I’m just going to mail it in. But I’m not that kind of guy. I’m never going to mail it in.
Speaking with MTV, Rourke went on to blame Marvel’s desire to make mindless comic book movies, and criticizes Jon Favreau for his lack of conviction:
If they let you play the bad guy with other dimensions other than one-dimensional. You have to fight for that though, to bring layers to the character. Otherwise, if you’re working for the wrong studio or let’s say a director that doesn’t have any balls, then they’re just gonna want it to be the evil bad guy. […] So, if you’re working with some good studio guys that got brains and you’re working with a director with a set of nuts that’ll let you incorporate that then it’s fun. Otherwise, you end up with what happened on ‘Iron Man.
Iron Man 3 is being written and directed by Shane Black. While all would seem to be progressing well in the development stage, one can only imagine how things will change when cameras start to roll, and Marvel starts making their ‘improvements’.
Let us know what you thinks of Mickey’s hard hitting truths.
via: screenrant
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