Marvel Studios may have a good reputation when it comes to pleasing fans, but they're also known for being quite ruthless when it comes to the actors who work for them. Both Ed Norton and Mickey Rourke have vowed never to work with them again, while it was recently rumoured that they had forced Natalie Portman to reprise the role of Jane Foster in Thor: The Dark World. When Terrence Howard demanded a bigger paycheck for Iron Man 2, the studio replaced him with Don Cheadle (which some would argue is perfectly understandable). It was also thought that director Jon Favreau wasn't happy with his performances. Regardless, when Desde Hollywood caught up with Howard at a junket for Dead Man Down, they asked the actor for his thoughts on the Iron Man franchise.
"It's similar to what happens with my character in this movie: He had lost a lot. Thought he was maintaining and holding his ground. All the things he was building his future on was not going to sustain him. Unfortunately he went after and tried to seek his own revenge.
I had a decision to make. I could have sought revenge against Marvel and all. But I learned something in life. You know?
That everything is controlled by this wave particle theory. Often times when we are moving up in this wave field we are looking up. But the moment that we are reaching the descent we are still looking up. Guess what: we are falling.
But if you turn and orient yourself in the direction that you are going in, you will gain momentum and a great deal of inertia so you reflect off the valley and you miss the next two or three downward falls.
I love the fact that Iron Man put me on a world stage and tested my strength of character. Because I chose not to fight back, not to deal with the allegations, but to continue forward and do what I had to do.
I had to start all over: went from making $6 million a movie, back to $60 thousand a movie. But as long as you don't give up you are able... I'll make $20 million soon. Because I have learned the lessons of yesterday."