knightinironarmor:

robert downey jr honest to fucking god deserves an oscar for that IM1 final press conference scene. for acting like he’s tony stark while tony stark is acting like hes not fucking DYING to be a superhero

i’ve said this before but the thing about playing tony stark is that it’s damn acting inception. dude it’s not about acting like he’s feeling a thing. it’s not even just about acting as if he’s feeling a thing while pretending he’s NOT feeling a thing. this guy has to 1) act like he’s feeling a thing while 2) pretending not to be feeling that thing but also 3) SUBTLY FAILING at pretending not to be feeling that thing. CONSTANTLY

because tony stark is not cold and unemotional or cooly detached, he just pretends to be when it’s convenient, fails in very specific ways (as in, he fails enough for that to be noticed by very few but missed by most), or he’s otherwise playing at a quasi impossible balance between facade and emotional genuineness, like he’s an open book with a page he very neatly torn off jfc do you UNDERSTAND how intense this must be to act and successfully convey to an audience without using any explicit DESCRIPTIVE WORDING i’m pulling all my face muscles just thinking about this

like!!!! this is the reason why iron man comic narrative relied so much on super dramatic third-person narration boxes because he was lying and/or hiding so much of the time and robert downey jr has the unbelievable task of giving us this conflict not only in movies that revolve around his character but also in ensemble movies and movies that take an external perspective on him and he’s not allowed constant voiceovers and solo backstage scenes my goD if rdj doesn’t get more recognition for this role then the entire industry is uh FAKE