In a fairly lengthy interview with Crave Online, the Immortals star has commented once again on his anger over how his Iron Man 2 character was eventually portrayed in the final cut of the movie. Putting the blame solely on Marvel Studios rather than director Jon Favreau or writer Justin Theroux, he's clearly unhappy that we didn't get to see his full and unedited take on Whiplash. Alternatively, it could of course have something to do with neither Rourke or the movie receiving much in the way of critical acclaim and he's just looking for someone to blame! Be sure to share your thoughts in the usual place and click on the link below to read the interview in full.
I got the impression that even though you’re technically the "bad guy" in the movie, that he seemed to really sympathize with your character a lot.
Well, I always try to bring that to a character. It’s like when 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, 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 the floor.
Well, you know, it is f**king 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 f**k ‘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.
I could tell you didn’t mail it in on 'Iron Man'...
No, but I’m saying it’s frustrating when that happens, when you care so much and you try so hard. At the end of the day you’ve got some nerd with a pocketful of money calling the shots. You know, Favreau didn’t call the shots. I wish he would have. And Theroux, we worked together to bring layers to that character, so, you know, I fight for that any time I’m playing like a bad guy.