Widely-known for his recent roles in MARVEL’s Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark, American actor and producer Robert Downey Jr. shared his story on how the original Iron Man suit ‘blinded’ him during David Letterman’s "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction" episode.
“Initially, everything was really there. They wanted to spend as little as they could on CG replacement, so I remember this helmet went on, and there’d be a shot, and I’d be in this whole suit, and they’d say: 'All right, Robert, it's like you landed on the roof, so when we say action, just go like that, like you just landed, and then start moving forward.' So I put this helmet on, and it slammed closed, and I couldn’t see anything, and then these LED lights went on and it was like The Manchurian Candidate… I was absolutely blinded.”
Luckily for Mr. Stark, the process of wearing the "Iron Man" suit did not continue. He went on to explain how his approach to wearing the suit really changed when filming Avengers Endgame years later.
“By the time we were doing the last Avengers, they'd just be like 'Hey Robert would mind like; putting on the-- Helmet? No! Yes? No. Put two dots here and then you can paint it in later.”
For more than a decade, MARVEL fans and movie-lovers have known Downey Jr. as the "Iron Man". He became one with his character in his films and gave up a lot, to the point where he even injured his ankle by doing a stunt in Iron Man 3.
But through it all, his films have grossed over 14.4 billion dollars worldwide, making him the sixth highest-grossing film actor of all-time.