highlights/key takeaways include:
favreau talking nonstop about how rdj kept insisting on so many little editing tweaks that ultimately made the movie flow better
jay leno criticizing rdj for clearly not knowing what he was doing when tony clumsily takes apart a car engine [favreau’s own] (18 min mark)
tony waking up in the cave after being kidnapped was the first shot they did/rdj’s first time playing tony stark for the actual movie
rdj apologizing for this hat:
saying how that costuming choice had been his call and he didn’t knowingly mean to give such a dickensian sad boy look
when the next shot appears, favreau immediately demanding that rdj apologize for this hat:
telling how it irritated the marvel execs to no end (“we don’t show up for one day and he puts on a castro hat?!”) while rdj murmurs defensively in the background (“c'mon, that was a great hat.”)
favreau had to fight to keep in so many shots of tony working with his hands/just building things frame after frame, since he was adamant that these images were “what the whole movie was about”
the fact that tony wasn’t supposed to have his iron man mask up during the goodbye/death scene with yinsen – but they had him lift it for a single take for some technical reason that wasn’t meant to be used, then ended up using that take in the final cut (45 min mark)
rdj interrupting favreau’s explanation of the above, wanting silence for “my coming out part” (when iron man steps out of the darkness of the cave and unleashes hell)
favreau was simply indulging rdj when rdj suggested that tony make everyone sit down on the floor for the first press conference, saying that he went along with the kooky idea ‘once’ just so rdj would trust him as a director – but then ended up keeping it in bc it was so tony
rdj and favreau agreeing that the scene where pepper reaches into the arc reactor casing in tony’s chest is their ‘favorite scene’
the execs wanted to know why tony was drinking “that green shit,” which seemed to detract from the scene; favreau tells that rdj was adamant that tony would want to heal his body with superfoods
↑ “i would never not look someone in the eye when i shake their hand. but tony would.” —rdj
lots of references to indiana jones, star wars, robocop, alien
rhodey’s ringtone is the theme to the 60s iron man cartoon (same theme is used when obie introduces an absent stark at the award ceremony before the vegas scene)
the reason that tony ridicules dum-e and U so much is that these bots were used pre-production in a superbowl commercial to promote the upcoming movie, to show off what kind of ‘cool tech’ tony has around – rdj got annoyed by that, saying “these are THE DUMBEST robots anyone would ever have 🙄😑” – so when it came time to shoot his scenes with them he didn’t bother to hide how he really felt about them
↑ the photo of the iron man suit used in this newspaper shot was taken by real paparazzi, who caught up with the crew while they were shooting on a closed highway and snuck some photos; favreau thought it would be ‘cool’ to get back at them by using their shot in this scene, but then they sued marvel for $5 million for stealing their photo
putting the bonus scene at the end of the credits roll wasn’t something favreau originally wanted to do, worried that people would miss it – but it turned out that when ppl did in fact learn that they missed a scene at the end, they came back to watch the whole movie again just to catch that scene, which boosted box office revenue (this idea was suggested to him by dir. edgar wright, who happened to be at skywalker ranch during an early screening of the movie, and thought that sam jackson’s scene didn’t land right where favreau had initially included it early in the credits sequence. marvel was unhappy with this call until they saw how well it played with audiences)
