As always, you can either read the transcript below or download the audio of the interview as an MP3 by clicking here.
And with that⦠hereâs Jon. Expect a ton of video interviews from Comic-Con starting tomorrow.
Question: How did you get from being an actor in a comic book film to directing it? Do you miss being a daredevil or behind the camera?
Jon Favreau: No because I could always stick myself in the movie which you saw. I was very happy to be in the movie.
Very happy?
Very happy.
Can you talk a little bit about the other cameos like
I can tell you⦠thereâs a lot of speculation about cameos in the movie and most of them are completely unfounded. As far as Sam Jackson, as far as Iâm concerned, there is only one Nick Fury and thatâs David Hasselhoff.
So why Iron Man for you?
Why Iron Man for me? Avi Arad who I met on Daredevil and he was talking to me about their getting the properties. They were securing the rights to the properties. Iâve always been curious about Captain
You got the comic book audience but how did you plan to get say the non-comic book audience to watch the movie?
Whatâs nice nowâI mean lookâthe biggest hurdle was getting the comic book audience to know we got the right guy playing Tony Stark. They were hailing the movie with the right tone, with the right humor, with the right personality, with the right look and we got the suit right. Because thatâs the only people who know who Iron Man is right now are the fans. Now itâs about educating the rest of the public and what Transformers showed is that if you have enough visual interest on the screen there will be a curiosity about a movie like that. People will go see it. Iron Man, although heâs a super hero and has all the wonderful aspects of the Marvel tradition of a conflicted flawed hero, but you also have the layer of technology thatâs going to you know with ILM itâs basically you know ILM has been doing a great work on Transformers, on Pirates of the Caribbean. They going to bring a visual interest to the suit and the chorography and you got a little taste of it with the footage that thereâs a tremendousâ¦you know you could cut a trailer that has nothing to do with what we all loved about Iron Man that would make every kid in America want to see this movie just because of the layers of technology, the fighting and the Marvel brand. Donât underestimate that. People want to see movies like that. They know theyâre in for a wild ride when they see a Marvel movie.
Is this movie going to be appropriate for little kids that are Iron Man fans? Like 5 year olds?
Itâs going to be PG-13. That being said, my son whoâs just turned 6, I would very comfortably bring him to the film. As far as language, sexuality, stuff thatâs difficult, violence that is like you know I had a hard time showingâ¦there are PG-13 movies like Van Helsing that I had to turn off with my kids watching. Even Daredevil was a little tricky to show him because it was made to be very violent at timesâthe character was as well. In this I wanted to have something that wasnâtâ¦that the action was appropriate for all audiences but I didnât want to make it like a PG family fun film because it was Tony Stark and Tony Stark likes to screw, he likes to drink, he likes to party and he likes to drive fast cars and Iron Man gets rough and tumble. Itâs about a guy whoâs ambushed in a convoy, in our case in Afghanistan, so thereâs a way to treat that material where itâs not cleaned up too much for me where Iâll enjoy watching it but I wouldnât feel irresponsible letting my kids see it. But itâs my kid. Not everybodyâs kids are the same way.
How is it working on a bigger canvas that Marvel is spinning right now. I mean, they are now their own company; they have a bunch of characters that they own the rights. Theyâre doing Iron Man, theyâre doing Hulk, and they have Captain
I hope so. I donât know how many Iron Man movies you can make before you need to see The Avengers happen or Shield. Thereâs certainly Kevin whoâsâ¦I donât know if youâve spoken with him yetâheâs a fan. He has an interest in it. Legally theyâre getting into position where they can do it. There are different challenges from a business standpoint about doing that because itâs a differentâ¦making Oceanâs 11 is a different business model than making a movie that Brad Pitt is starring in. If they could navigate those waters then I think creatively would make a lot of sense. It would be a lot of fun and I hope to be the guy who gets to do it.
Why did you decide you wanted to do the effects in camera rather than CG?
I did both. Thereâs a lot of CG but I think to do CG effectively you have to play a game with the audience where you show them something real and show them something fake and the fake stuff should look real and the real stuff should look CG and Stan Winstonâs design was something where we could work with craftsman. If you saw Mark I suit down there, you see a lot of details in it. That keeps ILM honest and vice versa, if ILM could make this guy acrobatic and fly in the air like you saw, the suit canât be so restrictive that it looks like youâre cuttingâ¦it canât look like the Power Rangers when you cut from the people in suits to the â¦has to look like the same person and thatâs part of â¦I think you lose the audience emotionally if they donât buy the transition between the two.
So who is the character based on?
Well, the character is based a lot on Howard Hughes.
No, to you.
To me, whoâs a real hero? A real hero, you mean these arenât real people? I thought that comic book characters were real. At Comic Con I saw a few of them walking around. I saw a guy dressed as Darth Maul whoâs my hero. Whoâs a hero in real life? Iâm a big fan of Tony Blair. I like him a lot. But not to defer to far but I likeâ¦I have a lot of respect for the guy and I wish him well in what heâs doing now. I think heâs an interesting leader but I think itâs going to be a whole new cast of characters coming into the world of politics in the next year. Itâs going to be interesting to see what happens.
You look great.
Thank you very much.
You must have dropped likeâ¦
Yeah, like 80 pounds.
How did you do it?
Running from my chair to in front of the camera a lot to talk to actors. As a director, you always eat a lot and you still manage to lose weight. Itâs like the Deadliest Catch, working on the crab boats you burn so many calories by worrying and staying up and working so hard⦠usually lose a little bit of weight. This time around I decided not to go to the craft service table and be very careful about what I ate and the weight came off in a few months.
And were you able to exercise all this time?
Not really.
Was it a conscious thing orâ¦
It was very conscious. Well, I knew I would do a cameo in the movie so I wanted to look good so I just kept going with it and just watching how much and eating less food. It sounds silly but that was my big secret.
So no more acting for you because then you gain weight?
Yeah, I like acting a lot and I hope to do some. I always manage to do something with Vince and hope to do some work with him and maybe do some comedy with him and weâll see how this goes. You know, the juryâs out on this movie until it comes out and itâs a 2 year process to make these types of movies, so hopefully between now and if Iâm so lucky to make another Iron Man movie hopefully do some acting and maybe some other movies.
What did you learn by working on Daredevil as an actor that you brought as a director to Iron Man because theyâre both super hero movies?
Wow, yeah. As an actor I didnât really learn a lot because I was so on the periphery as a supporting character, sort of a comedic sidekick. I learned donât shoot more movie then you intend to put on the screen. You waste a lot of time and money so really get the story right before you go into production. I also learned that if you make a movie make it something that you donât have to be a comic book fan to appreciate. I think Daredevilâa lot of effort was put into keeping it true to the booksâand I think tonally it never broke to the next level of success. It was certainly a successful film but I think it could have done better if the audience was broader for it.
So thereâs not going to be a 40 hours extended cut.
No, I hope not. I looked at a cut that the longest cut of everything was a little less than 3 hours which isnât that long for a first cut. It will be below 2 by the time it comes out. So I have a lot of decisions to make.
Can you talk about Avengers, Captain
I would love to be faced with that challenge if this works out well and Marvel franchises all come together thereâs certainly opportunity to do that.
What can you tell us about the comic book youâre writing?
The comic book Iâm writing? Arnie Granoff and I started working together in designing the suit for the movie. I wanted him as involved as I could be to stay true to that vision. I thought his vision for the hero was wonderful. Then he hit me up and said did you ever think of writing books? I said I donât really know that much about that process. He said Iâll help you with it and weâve been very collaborative and itâs going to be Iron Man Viva
Will it take place in the movie universe or the comic universe?
I broke out of this movie universe. Itâs too restrictive. I wanted to have him changing with an attaché case and I wanted to be able to draw on the Marvel universe.
When will it be coming out?
Before the movie. Iâm not sure when weâll be releasing it.
Terrance spoke about revising the script on the set.
Oh yeah sure.
What was it you changed? Was it dialogue?
Dialogue change. We learned things about the characters as we went. We refined the story on the set but this is part of the process. The Marvel movies they do that a lot where itâs more about the story and about and for me thereâs always been a component of improvisation in movies Iâve worked on. I was lucky to have actors who could handle it like this guy. Ok, Iâll see you there, buddy.
Since Iron Man has a bunch of armor, is there going to be at least a hangar with all the unused armors. And Swingers hit close to home.
Thank you very much about Swingers. As far as Iron Man, we showed 2 suits so farâwe showed the Mark I and the Mark III. So put it all together.
Where is the
We had to save something, right? We have to save some surprises.
Can you talk about what itâs like to show your footage at Comic Con with 7,000 people and everyone just loving it?
Itâs awesome because you donât know if youâre going to â¦you could die on the vine here. If they decide youâre Catwoman, youâre done. Comic Con can drive a stake through the heart of a property like this where itâs not like Superman, or Batman, or Spiderman where everybody knows it in our culture. This is something where thereâs going to be an education process so by showing it to the fans first they were going to decide whether they liked the movie or not based on what we showed them. From here we could build out but itâs knowing what the challenges of each title are. In this film the challenge was knowing and satisfying the fans of the books. In another movie itâs, you know, reinventing a franchise thatâs been done before. Each movie has itâs own. In our case, this is the place to show the footage for the first time and I think the gamble paid off. People seemed to respond to it from what Iâve read online, what Iâve seen and what I felt in the room and now