Having kicked his bad habits and gained 20 pounds of muscle, two-time Academy Award-nominated actor Robert Downey, Jr. (RDJ) appeared to be in "super" shape as Tony Stark in the first Iron Man (2008). But, the 44-year-old actor went even further with his training regimen and got completely shredded to play "The World's Greatest Detective" in director Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, a role that required him to do a considerable amount of his own stunt work.
In a recent interview with
Empire, RDJ said that he enjoyed the physicality of the
Holmes role so much that he wanted to bring some of that experience to
Iron Man 2:
"The action's certainly got bigger [in Iron Man 2]. But I went and did Sherlock Holmes, which was a real balls-to-the-wall, get-your-fists-grazed adventure. Coming back into this I really challenged our stunt team to get our hands dirty a little more, because I was still kind of into that. I love it so much! There is no better day that I can have than one where I beat people up or get thrown around. I just love it. It's supposed to be safe, but it's a little more than acting, so it's really fun." Sherlock Holmes opens December 25th and
Iron Man 2 opens May 7th (April 30 in the UK and AU)!
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