How Mickey Rourke Really Felt About Working With Marvel On Iron Man 2

Jon Favreau's "Iron Man 2" is the third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but really it was the first. Favreau's "Iron Man" from two years before was a Paramount production, but wasn't yet part of any grand plan to interconnect the characters from Marvel's "Avengers" comics. Its post-credits stinger featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury was, Favreau has said, just meant to be a cute wink to fans rather than a statement of intent. Likewise, Louis Leterrier's "The Incredible Hulk" from the same year, while boasting a fun cameo from "Iron Man" actor Robert Downey Jr., wasn't yet tied to any broad corporate plans. (It's since gotten a sequel of sorts in the form of "Captain America: Brave New World.") By 2009, however, Disney had purchased Marvel and put the MCU into production in earnest, starting with "Iron Man 2."

Ask any MCU fan, however, and they will tell you that "Iron Man 2" was, at best, a rocky start for the soon-to-be-dominant film property. It spent far too much time on advertising upcoming events and not enough time on the characters in front of us — and, golly, there were many, many characters to keep track of. (It's little wonder Favreau swore off directing MCU movies after this.) Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark and his would-be lover Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) returned while Don Cheadle played James Rhodes, taking over the role from Terrence Howard. There was also Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff and two new villains played by Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke. "Iron Man 2" is no one's favorite, and even its cast would tell you as much

Case in point: Rourke played Ivan Vanko aka Whiplash, a Russian villain outfitted with powerful electric whips that can cut cars in half. Even though Rourke studied hard for the role, he's admitted that "Iron Man 2" was a weak picture overall and that his character kind of sucked. Speaking to CraveOnline in 2011 (as transcribed by Complex), the actor said that he tried to give Whiplash some texture and depth, but that, by studio mandate, he was kept one-dimensional and uninteresting.

It seems that Whiplash was never meant to be terribly sophisticated. In the MCU, there are heroes and there are evil-doers, and most notions of ethical ambiguity are ignored in favor of broadly general moral absolutes. Rourke didn't have this dynamic explained to him, which was frustrating. Marvel didn't want a dynamic, rich villain, but a snarling cartoon. As Rourke recalled:

"You know, I explained to ['Iron Man 2' co-writer Justin Theroux] and to Favreau that I wanted to bring some other layers and colors, not just make this Russian a complete murderous revenging bad guy. And they allowed me to do that. Unfortunately, the [people] at Marvel just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy, so most of the performance ended up the floor."

Rourke felt betrayed. He thought that "Iron Man 2" was supposed to be different from a typical superhero movie, expanding on the characters and not obsessing over technology and interconnected, oversimplified comic book lore. As we all now know, "Iron Man 2" was obsessed with lore, and really existed only to set the tone for films that would follow it. Rourke, meanwhile, was visiting Russian prisons, learning the accent, and bringing new details to Whiplash to make him more human and idiosyncratic. Ir was Rourke's idea to give Whiplash a pet cockatoo, for instance.

But Marvel wasn't interested in any of that, and that upset Rourke. As he put it:

"If they want to make mindless comic book movies, then I don't want to be a part of that. I don't want to have to care so much and work so hard, and then fight them for intelligent reasoning, and just because they're calling the shots they ... You know, I didn't work for three months on the accent and all the adjustments and go to Russia just so I could end up on the floor."

Needless to say, Whiplash hasn't returned for any of the many, many other MCU movies. (Yes, he died at the end of "Iron Man 2," but when has that ever stopped a Marvel character?) Rourke, it seems, felt the House of Ideas did him a disservice.