Robert Downey Jr on Iron-Man: I am not my work

Robert Downey Jr

For over a decade, Robert Downey Jr has been Tony Stark aka Iron-Man for Marvel fanatics around the world but the actor is clear, in real life, he is not the beloved superhero. The actor, whose career stemmed from theatre, said his off-Broadway training taught him to maintain "aesthetic distance" from the characters he plays in order to remain in touch with his identity.

"I am not my work. I am not what I did with that studio. I am not that period of time that I spent playing this character (Iron-Man). And it sucks, because the kid in all of us wants to be like, 'No. It's always going to be summer camp and we're all holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya'," Downey Jr told The Hollywood Reporter.

But both Disney's Marvel Studio and the actor benefited from the mirror-like personas of the Hollywood star and Iron-Man. "Initially, by creating and associating and synergising with Tony Stark and the Marvel Universe... And being a good company man, but also being a little off kilter, being creative and getting into all these other partnerships, it was a time when... what do they say? Owners start looking like their pets," he said.

The 54-year-old actor earned USD 50 million as backend profit participation for "Avengers" (2012), and he made USD 75 million for "Avengers: Infinity War". Calling himself Marvel's "trust fund kid", Downey Jr noted post "Avengers: Endgame" an unknown road waits for him.

"There's always a dependency on something that feels like a sure thing. It's the closest I will ever come to being a trust fund kid," he said of his time with the studio.

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