Jeff Bridges Reveals Chaos BTS Of IRON MAN; "We Were Making A $200M Student Film"

Jeff Bridges Reveals Chaos BTS Of IRON MAN; "We Were Making A $200M Student Film"

Though he praises both director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man star Jeff Bridges has now revealed how chaotic an experience making the movie was, with no firm script in place and days where they would just make it up as they went along. Read on for details!

By JoshWilding - Jul 25, 2014 06:07 AM EST
Filed Under: Iron Man
Source: reddit
Jeff Bridges recently took part in a reddit AMA, and was quizzed by one fan about his time playing Obidiah Stane/Iron Monger in 2008's Iron Man. The movie is still rightly considered one of Marvel Studios' best releases, and is credited with kicking off the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With their tenth movie - Guardians of the Galaxy - receiving extremely positive reviews, things at Marvel seem to run far more smoothly these days, but that wasn't always the case...

"We were so fortunate to have Robert and that team, and also Jon Favreau, both those guys are incredible actors and improvisers. And that movie was so much fun to make. It was unusual because it was very expensive, close to $200 million or something, and you would think that a movie that had that high a budget, they would have had their script tighter. But that was not the case. And we would very often find ourselves, at the beginning of the day, going into our trailers with little tape recorders with the suits from Marvel & Jon & Robert, and we would try to come up with what we were going to shoot that day! We would trade parts, I would play his part, or he would play my part, Favreau would be calling up writer friends of his, and meanwhile the crew is tapping their foot, waiting for us to come back to work. That was very frustrating for me, because I like to be very prepared and let it go in front of the camera, so that you know your lines and stuff, until I made a small inner adjustment that was: realizing we were making a $200 million dollar student film. And just to relax and have fun, do your best, don't worry too much, and I think that the film came out terrifically! And again, that's largely because we had Robert and Jon onboard."


Luckily, Bridges still clearly enjoyed the finished product as much as the rest of us and it's interesting to see how much things have changed for Marvel since they first decided to start their own studio. The actor doesn't look back on his time on the set of R.I.P.D. anywhere near as fondly, as you can see by clicking here. What do you guys think? Sound off below!
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Abary
Abary - 7/25/2014, 6:27 AM
He's a great actor, one of the best parts of the first Iron Man film.
JusticePourTous
JusticePourTous - 7/25/2014, 6:34 AM
Would have loved to see behind the scenes of that. But we're so lucky it worked out. Could so easily have ended up a huge stinking mess.
yossarian
yossarian - 7/25/2014, 6:35 AM
I made a 20 dollar student film once.
Rico1983
Rico1983 - 7/25/2014, 6:41 AM
Clickbait link? JB doesn't slate his time on the set of RIPD at all.
arsonjack
arsonjack - 7/25/2014, 6:46 AM
im3 was the worst
MsDarkPhoenix
MsDarkPhoenix - 7/25/2014, 6:50 AM
I made a 0 dollar music video once. My friend lost that contest but whatever, I'm gonna call myself a director :P
TheGambitFreak
TheGambitFreak - 7/25/2014, 6:51 AM
I think this is the case with nearly all of the films of in the MCU.
yossarian
yossarian - 7/25/2014, 6:53 AM
@Mexican - But we screened it for students.
DrKinsolving
DrKinsolving - 7/25/2014, 6:53 AM
@dethpillow

Haha, this reminded me of that clip
Desrow
Desrow - 7/25/2014, 7:01 AM
One of the best comic book movies of all time, IM1 was awesome.
MrCBM56
MrCBM56 - 7/25/2014, 7:01 AM
It's always so impressive to me hearing about this. Great movie.
MrBlackJack
MrBlackJack - 7/25/2014, 7:04 AM
I for one wouldn't be pissed in the slightest if I was making a $200,000,000 student film.
Null
Null - 7/25/2014, 7:07 AM
One of the best! Makes you wonder why can't they get that same magic back.
SuperCat
SuperCat - 7/25/2014, 7:08 AM
Best Iron Man movie.
MercwithMouth
MercwithMouth - 7/25/2014, 7:11 AM
@yossarian

NC-17?
ChrispyG
ChrispyG - 7/25/2014, 7:13 AM
Yep, this ended up working out very well for the first Iron Man, unfortunately, the 'unprepared' approach ended up taking a serious toll on The Incredible Hulk. The finished film was still good, but they entered production with no finished script, and picked Norton over Ruffalo(The director's top choice) purely because he could touch up the script, he was doing re-writes on-set, etc etc

If only they had aimed for a 2009 release with TIH instead of 2008...the finished film might have been a lot stronger.
Tetrahedron
Tetrahedron - 7/25/2014, 7:14 AM
All great movies are made this way, I remember watching a making of documentary for The Shining, where they would literally stop shooting the movie so that Stanley Kubrick could go sit at a typewriter and write the next few lines of dialogue. This is how you keep the atmosphere electric and you keep the creative energy from stagnating and you keep the actors on their toes.

yossarian
yossarian - 7/25/2014, 7:14 AM
@merc - Pretty much. It was banned in France and Iran.
TheGambitFreak
TheGambitFreak - 7/25/2014, 7:16 AM
Yeah, watching the Joss Whedon commentary currently and he talks about filming the scene where Coulson, Hill and Fury are talking about what they're going to do about Loki before they show the Avengers logo and he says they kept writing multiple conversations whilst filming. He also said his assistant would be looking up scientific terms for Banner during shooting. Plus there's all those "Apartment cellphone pics" of Joss writing lines on a paper for the actors to memorize real fast.

And that's not a bad thing. Improvising makes dialogue more real and normal. Look at Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. 2 of the greatest shows of all time. Both highly improvised. Just saying.
Hulksta
Hulksta - 7/25/2014, 7:17 AM
Macksimus
Macksimus - 7/25/2014, 7:19 AM
IM1 is a great example of what can happen when you let the TALENT make the creative decisions.

Amazing Spiderman movies is a great example of what can happen when you let the studio execs make the creative decisions. ...you get watered down gimicky crap.
MercwithMouth
MercwithMouth - 7/25/2014, 7:21 AM
I just realized that I've been watching MrBlackJack's avatar for a full 3 minutes...

Love Iron Man, almost as good as Iron Man 3.

Yeah, I said it...

MercwithMouth
MercwithMouth - 7/25/2014, 7:25 AM
@yoss

I bet if you edited out the donkey, France would love it!
kinghulk
kinghulk - 7/25/2014, 7:28 AM
odinson2k14- "Put Green Lantern and John Carter NEXT to Guardians of the Galaxy and the two Thor solos. You studios that brought the CGI guys in and created alien univereses...and another studio doing just enough to get the production done."

both of those films are shit, you cant rely on cgi to sell a film.
so give it a rest we get it you think for some reason that marvel's animation in films is terrible. there is no need to bring it up in every thread every time you post.
DylansMyDog
DylansMyDog - 7/25/2014, 7:32 AM
@OdinSon2k14 Wait, are you saying Green Lantern and John Carter looked better than Thor 2 and GotG?

I'm not sure if you are trolling or just 12 years old...
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