During a new appearance on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Robert Downey Jr. revealed that watching Tobey Maguire In ‘Spider-Man’ inspired him to join the world of heroes with Iron Man.
“In real-time, I saw how difficult they were, how rewarding they could be, and how popular [comic book films] were becoming,” the actor initially explained, referring to how he saw how Maguire managed it.
He continued, “I had been clean long enough…hungry even longer and I could feel [the] obsession coming back with manifesting the best version of myself. I had strangely been furiously strength training six times a week before I even knew [this role] was coming, and my shrink had told me, ‘Just start acting like something great is gonna happen and get ready for it.'”
Downey Jr. became a big name in superhero movies by playing Tony Stark/Iron Man and will soon play Dr. Doom. Before getting the role of Iron Man, the actor had a tough few years, both in his career and personal life. He struggled with substance abuse but was clean by the time Marvel offered him the role.
Maguire is famous for playing Peter Parker in Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy. Maguire and Downey starred together in the 2000 film ‘Wonder Boys’ with Michael Douglas, Katie Holmes, and Frances McDormand. Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie came out in 2002, after Downey and Maguire became friends.
The first MCU film was 2008’s ‘The Incredible Hulk’ with Edward Norton. However, it was Downey Jr. as Iron Man that made the MCU a huge success. His film quickly became one of the top-grossing films of the year and is still seen as one of the best from Phase 1.
Downey Jr. made the character very popular, but his time as Iron Man ended in 2019’s ‘Avengers: Endgame.’ Now, the actor is set to return to the MCU as Dr. Doom in ‘Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.’
