This article is brought to you by the winner of Comic Book Movie's Best Editorial of 2010! lol
Tobey Maguire - May 2, 2007 Howard Stern interviewed Tobey Maguire by phone on terrestrial radio while promoting Spider-Man 2, so while promoting Spider-Man 3, Tobey came into the studio.
The moment Tobey sits down, Howard recommends that he legally change his name to 'Spider-Man'. Artie [Lange] adds “Am I the only intellectual who thinks [Tobey] should change his name to 'The Cider House Rules'?"
Howard reported that Tobey made $12 million (apparently is was actually between $3-4 million) for Spider-Man and $17 million (plus 5% back-end) for Spider-Man 2, but Tobey wouldn’t get into how much money he made for Spider-Man 3 (which is reported to had been $15,000,000, plus 7.5% back-end). He did say he “loved working with the people” from the Spider-Man franchise, and wouldn’t rule out being in a fourth film if the same people from the first three were involved.
Howard went on to say Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dusnt started dating during the first Spider-Man, and wondered if it was awkward working with her now. Tobey laughed off Howard’s question and refused to answer it, he added he liked working with Kirsten and they were friends.
When Howard next asked Tobey if he and Leonardo “ever did the same woman,” Tobey again laughed and asked, “Do you really think I’m going to cave with any of this stuff?” Despite this, Tobey did admit he once skinny-dipped with Liv Tyler when they were teenagers, and that he threw up during the swim because he’d been drinking.
Howard proceeded to recall how Tobey was thinking about leaving the Spider-Man franchise years ago, but Tobey noted that, because of back problems he was having at the time, he wasn’t sure if he’d be healthy enough to be in it. Given this, Howard pointed out he felt Jake Gyllenhaal was trying to live Tobey’s life – both because he wanted to be Spider-Man and even dated Kirsten Dunst – but Tobey denied that was the case.
Howard, who’d seen an advanced screening of Spider-Man 3, next told Tobey he enjoyed it so much because of both the special effects and the storyline. Howard then took some calls for Tobey, including one from Ralph, who wanted to know why Kirsten didn’t have her teeth straightened, a question that made Tobey laugh and say, “Shit.” Other callers asked Tobey if he considered himself an A-list celebrity, which he responded he did. Another caller asked if he ever had sex in his Spider-Man costume, but he said he couldn’t because the suit was a one-piece.
Tobey said he hoped to watch Spider-Man 3 in a movie theater with a regular audience during its opening weekend, explaining he felt viewing the film with people who paid to see it was the best part of making such a movie.
Eliza Dushku - February 12, 2009 Before Scarlett Johansson was cast in Iron Man 2, Eliza Dushku came on the show to promote Joss Whedon's short-lived Dollhouse series and made a public plea to Jon Favreau and Marvel Studios to cast her as the Black Widow.
“They’re doing Iron Man 2, and I’m so perfect for the Black Widow character, that they just need to get into it. They need to understand I just learned Russian because I had to play a Russian girl in Dollhouse.” - Eliza Dushku
Eliza went on to tell Howard she helped Tobey Maguire rehearse for the first Spider-Man movie, playing Mary Jane Watson.
Hugh Jackman - April 30, 2009 When X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked online, Howard got on the air urging his listeners not to watch the unfinished, bootlegged film. Fox and the producers were so grateful with his statements, they offered to have him interview Hugh Jackman.
Howard starts the interview by asking why Hugh decided to be a producer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Hugh responds with "I'd had this movie in my head in some way, shape or form..." Howard cuts him off, asking "Could you drop that phony accent and talk like an American?" Hugh laughs. They talk about the difficulty of losing [Hugh's Australian] accent and hIs troubles with saying "Are you on the right side?" The tagline for X-Men: The Last Stand. Howard went back to asking why Hugh decided to be a producer and asked if it was because of artistic integrity. Hugh said "Yeah, and particularly for me, there's a lot about movies I don't know about and I never pretend to. But I knew about the character and I wanted to make sure that as we were going off into just focusing on Wolverine... that we would hit the tone that I wanted."
Hugh admits to never reading comics as a kid or ever even knowing what the X-Men were until he was cast the first movie. Hugh also admits that he lucked out with the role of Wolverine since Dougray Scott was forced to bow out due to a scheduling conflict with Mission: Impossible II.
Hugh went on to talk about auditioning for Wolverine, saying "The biggest problem for me was my height because Wolverine in the comic book is 5'3" Hugh crouches down, pretending to meet with people saying "Yeah man, how's it goin'? I can do it!" Robin says she didn't know Wolverine was that short and Hugh responds with "It's part of the thing people love about him is he's small, but ferocious. He's like Mike Tyson. Remember Mike Tyson when he came out, he was the smallest heavyweight and everyone was scared of him?"
Howard tells Hugh that he has a problem putting on muscle, asking how he trains to get into shape. "I worked with a guy who was a natural bodybuilder. I love acting, but nothing's worth having your testicles go to the size of raisins." Hugh confirms he works out six days a week, eating 5000 calories a day. "I do an hour and a half in the morning when I was really bulking up and I do another half hour in the afternoon. It's so intense... like, hard!" Hugh goes on to say that he benches 300lbs, doing 3 or 4 reps at a time. "You go through cycles, so two weeks you do like that. Then two weeks you do much less weight, really slow, up and down. Then you do a cycle where everything's fast! So you're kind of shaking up your body all the time."
Howard asks Hugh about not being shy, showing his penis for his nude scene in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and that there was a lot more nudity that didn't make the final film. Hugh says "The only problem is the PG-13 rating... I'm nude, and when we finished the film my wrap gift from the director was a bag with all the film cut-off which had my dick in it."
Hugh talks more about his penis, his mother abandoning him as a child, the rest of his family, falling in love with his wife, Halle Berry's breasts and the gay rumors. Great interview!
Denise Richards - June 4, 2009 Also one of the best interviews ever! Denise Richards was an open book, charming, rolled with the punches, joked with Howard and was another great interview.
The moment she walked into the studio, Howard gushed over how she looked and kicked off the interview talking to her about growing up beautiful, losing her virginity, how she started her career and Starship Troopers.
"Starship Troopers to me, was a great film. I love that film! It's one of my favourites, I've seen it maybe ten times. I was saying to Robin earlier... I remember being a very young kid and jerking-off to that movie and Robin goes 'Well wait a second, Denise is pretty young, how could you be a little kid?' and I realized I was forty-three! I was forty-three and beating off to your movie. I was married and everything!" - Howard Stern
He continues to talk with her about the rest of her movies, being a Bond girl and experimenting with lesbianism. There was much more information past this point, but things got very... graphic. To me, Denise Richards could be the hottest woman on the planet.
Howard Stern comments on the Ant-Man movie - June 14, 2010 Howard revealed that he met with Stan Lee about a possible superhero project. The conversation turned to Ant-Man being the last franchise left and for a brief moment, Howard was in consideration for the title role.
"[Ant-Man] had a whole army of ants, he could communicate with through his antennae. The only thing that really defeated him was a closed door. He couldn't get through. That was his kryptonite." - Howard Stern
Robert Downey Jr. - May 13, 2010 Howard begins a phone interview with Robert Downey Jr. by playing Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man.' Howard asks why Iron Man isn't in every movie, why does he only in appear in Iron Man movies and that he should be in Schindler's List. Robin asks if he's changing because he used to say that Spider-Man should be in every movie. Howard boasts "Yeah! Iron Man, Spider-Man and Meryl Streep as Julia Child. I love it! I love anything that's comic book or superheroes!" Robert is promptly announced on the air and Howard immediately asks "Robert! You're the best, right?" Robert replies "I can neither confirm nor deny that."
Howard asks if he laughs at other actors who have to look at things to get their emotions going for a scene, using Mickey Rourke as an example. During the filming of Iron Man 2, Mickey used to look at pictures of his dog (Loki), to get him going for a scene. Robert tells Howard he does that in his own way. Howard cuts him off asking if he studied acting and Robert says he has never been to an acting lesson, but was raised by actors. Robert goes on to say that the trick to being actor "is try to be good in the scene" and then goes on to compliment Howard's show.
Howard asks if Robert would ever go to acting school like Tobey Maguire had done recently. "I absolutely would. Yeah, Tobey and I are buddies and it's funny, because after I saw him have all that success with Spider-Man. I was like 'Dude, where's my franchise?' And so he's kind of been a great source of inside information." Howard asks how many Iron Man movies Robert Downey Jr. is signed up for. "I think with these two and then there's Avengers, which is a very ambitious project, putting all these superheroes together. Then Iron Man 3. We'll see. We'll see what happens."
Howard asks if he would be right in assuming Marvel got Robert cheap for the first Iron Man. You can almost hear Robert nod his head as he says "You would be assuming correctly... Let me put it this way, after taxes and commissions, I paid my lease and the kid got to stay in school." Howard goes on to say, considering [Iron Man] made hundreds of millions of dollars, what kind of negotiation posture he's in now. Robert responds "It's a funny thing, you have contracts and we have contracts for things, but then in extraordinary success I guess there's some sort of a loop hole that you don't even need to discuss which means you automatically get to re-negotiate. But, it was every bit as big a deal for me as it could possibily be for them in success and monetary because over the course of three days I was in a position I've been in the business for twenty-five years where I've had my ups and downs over lo' these many years and everything changed after that."
Howard and Robert discuss the Oscar nomination for Tropic Thunder, his season on Saturday Night Live, his marriage, psychology and sex, at which time Robert puts his wife Susan on the phone. With the three of them on the line, Howard asks Susan what it's like for her seeing her husband kiss women like Gwyneth Paltrow. Susan is very casual about it, saying it's all part of the job and if she's not producing the film, she doesn't have to be there to see it. Which she is one of the producers of the Iron Man films.
Jon Favreau - September 2, 2010 Jon Favreau confirmed earlier that summer that being such a Stern fan, he intentionally created Garry Shandling's Senator Stern character as a nod to the shock jock.
Jon Favreau sent Howard the 'Senator Stern' name plate from Iron Man 2 and a replica Iron Man helmet. Howard explains that he placed the helmet on a book shelf and took a bunch of pictures to e-mail his best friend and stylist, Ralph, in order to make him jealous. A short while later, Ralph sent Howard a picture of his own replica Iron Man helmet with a message: "Welcome to the club."
After talking with Ralph on the air, Howard comes to the conclusion that his Iron Man helmet is a toy and was never actually in the movie. He eventually gives the helmet away to his producer, Jason Kaplan.
When a caller asks who has the gayest superhero costume - September 22, 2010 "It's any of these guys that live under the water. It's either Aquaman or Namor. Even as a kid, I would read these comics and I thought 'These look kind of gay or somethin.' Even before I knew what gay was, they were all shaved down and Namor has those weird little wings on his ankles. I don't know, I just seemed very feminine. All those guys that live under the water... but all superhero costumes are gay. Let's face it." - Howard Stern
Garry Shandling - September 28, 2010 Howard talks to Garry about dodging marriage, The Larry Sanders Show, why he wouldn't want to host a late night program and how appearing in Iron Man 2 was exactly what he wanted at the time.
While plugging the Iron Man 2 DVD, Garry even threw in a mention for Michael Cera and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Howard segways into asking Garry about mentoring younger comedians like Sasha Baron Cohen, his celebrity basketball games, his personal life, dating, his childhood and back to why he hasn't settled down.
Green Lantern Discussions - December, 2010 After wondering whether or not Howard would be chosen as a Green Lantern, the on air staff convinces him that based on his actions in the past he would be too much of a coward to be a Green Lantern.
"You're right. You're right! I would be a horrible Green Lantern! I'd be like 'wait a second, I'm gonna take on this guy, but maybe he could kill me... even with my powers.' I think with the powers, I'd be suddenly brave, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'd be a shitty Green Lantern. I'd be a cowardly Green Lantern! More power than anybody in the universe and I'd still be [frick]ing wussy." - Howard Stern
This self-realization rocks Stern for a while, even bringing it up again the next day.
The following is a list of CBM celebrities I would like to hear on the show within the next couple of years. Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern)
It would be interesting to hear about Reynold's alleged affair with Sandra Bullock and his Green Lantern co-star, Blake Lively, his divorce from Scarlett Johansson and how he broke off his engagement to Alanis Morrisette.
Kevin Bacon (X-Men: First Class)
A long time friend of Howard Stern and the show, it would be interesting to hear details on what happened with he and the Bernie Madolf scandal.
Harrison Ford (Cowboys & Aliens)
Harrison does not like to do many interviews, so this would really be the ultimate! It would be interesting to hear about his relationship with Calista Flockhart, his divorce and his thoughts about Star Wars and the next Indiana Jones film.
Daniel Craig (Cowboys & Aliens)
I would like to hear his side of the story concerning his romantic involvement with Cowboys & Aliens co-star, Rachel Weisz, women, the gay rumors and the state of the current James Bond film.
Rachel Wiesz (Cowboys & Aliens)
I would like to hear about her life, why she left the Mummy franchise and what her situation was with Darren Aronofsky.
Shia Labeouf (Transformers: Dark of the Moon)
Shia is a self-proclaimed Howard Stern fan, he was harangued by Stern for drunk driving during the filming of Transformers 2, was made fun of for mis-pronouncing "epitome" while promoting Wallstreet 2 and most recently was involved in a bar fight.
Nicholas Cage (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance)
It would be interesting to go in-depth about his problems with the tax man, his personal life, the first Ghost Rider movie and his involvement with Superman Lives!
Darren Aronofsky (The Wolverine)
Aronofsky gave a great phone interview back in 2008, while promoting The Wrestler. Since then, he has gone through a break-up from actress Rachel Weisz, which I would love to hear the details. I would also like to hear about his alleged romance with Black Swan star, Natalie Portman, what happed with the Robocop reboot and his take on The Wolverine.
Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers)
As far as I know, he hasn't been interviewed on the show and I think he would be a great fit.