Don Cheadle talks about playing Iron Patriot,
Don Cheadle wants you to know he did not go potty in his Iron Patriot suit on the set of Iron Man 3. How do such nasty rumours get started? “Me,” the Oscar-nominated actor told the Star with a grin in Toronto earlier this week ahead of the movie’s Friday opening.
“It comes from being bored from asking the same damn questions so many times,” said Cheadle, who has been travelling around the world doing press for the latest in the Marvel franchise. “You just go, ‘Yeah, I went to the bathroom in the suit. I peed in the suit.’ Then someone writes it down and then you go into the next room and someone goes, ‘Did you pee in the suit?’”
Cheadle may be best known for dramatic work in Crash, Hotel Rwanda (he was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award) and as cutthroat management consultant Marty Kaan on series House of Lies, but he’s also a dab hand at comedy (he did standup early in his career) and quick with a dry quip in person.
He played British munitions expert Basher Tarr in Steven Soderbergh’s buddy-caper Oceans films and was a hit on the Funny or Die website where he donned an enormous wig and period clothes to play Frederick Douglass opposite Will Ferrell’s Abraham Lincoln in a hilarious Drunk History series sketch.
“It’s good to be in the playground and be able to play,” said Cheadle. “You don’t want to be there and everybody else has a ball and you’re just polishing the jungle gym. It’s nice to bat it around.”
But Cheadle is very serious about his work as UN Environment Program goodwill ambassador, working to fight climate change and promote conservation. He waves away bottled water provided by a publicist as he sits down to talk. “It’s just ridiculous,” said Cheadle of the waste. He has also campaigned extensively to draw attention to the genocide in Darfur.
Onscreen, as Iron Man Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) pal Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes, his alter ego of War Machine gets a marketing makeover — and a paint job — to become Iron Patriot.
“Rhodey’s take on it is exactly that: It’s still who I am, I still get to do what I get to do, I don’t care what you call it,” said Cheadle.
The movie also let him do action scenes with Downey Jr. that didn’t involve the Iron Patriot suit. “It’s cool. We got to get out outside of the suits and it’s nice to be flesh and blood going after it, playing with the stunt team and having to do all that stuff that we do in the third act,” he said.
Iron Man 3 writer-director Shane Black, who penned the Lethal Weapon films, brought his buddy-cop genre skills to play in taking over from Jon Favreau (director of Iron Man and Iron Man 2).
Favreau’s Happy Hogan returns onscreen, however, and is now head of security at Stark Industries.
“In a way, Jon was there because Shane . . . definitely used him as his counsel often to get a clearer picture on how to bring off both the smaller and more real character dynamic,” said Cheadle.
It’s not easy when you’re dealing with green screen and digital elements added long after the acting is done.
“It can only be imagined even to us because we don’t know what we’re looking at, what we’re dealing with,” said Cheadle, laughing.
Still, it must be a dream role for Cheadle to know he’s part of the Marvel universe, which comes with its own built-in fan base. “Well, it’s fun to know that if you do it right, there’s already an audience that’s willing to welcome you with open arms,” he said. Case in point, Iron Man 3 opened April 24 in Europe, Asia and Australia and has already pulled in $195.3 million ahead of its North American bow. “Conversely, if you mess it up, they want to bring the pitchforks and torches to your door,” added Cheadle. But there’s no evidence of that. In fact, there are suggestions Rhodey/War Machine deserves his own film. But before we see Cheadle don the suit again, he’s back at work on House of Lies next month for a new fall season. “You never know,” he said of a possible star vehicle for War Machine. “In the comic book, Rhodey takes over Iron Man and I don’t think any of us can anticipate what Marvel is planning,” he said. “They keep their cards very close to their vest. We’ll see.”