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Robert Downey Jr. has had a rip-roaring career for over two decades and despite personal crises, has been continually respected by audiences and fellow actors for his talent. Even with those hard times behind him, who would have predicted the actor would play Iron Man, the popular armored Marvel Comics superhero? Downey portrays Tony Stark the billionaire inventor-turned-superhero in one of the most highly anticipated films of the summer blockbuster season. While promoting Iron Man, he discussed how important it was to stay faithful to the material for the fans, whether or not film studios manipulate the media and how he fits into their grand promotional scene as an actor and a product.

Latino Review: How much input did you have going from Iron Man to The Incredible Hulk as Tony Stark in the film?
Robert Downey Jr.: Well, big companies have a way of manipulating people and they got you because we're here at the Iron Man print roundtable and you're talking about another property. So they asked me to go a day in a bar with someone and I was like, ‘Is that what I'm doing? And [I'm] over here doing a commercial for Audi? Wow. Is that in my contract? It is. I sit on the car? OK.' Then it was like, ‘Ed Norton wants you over here.' I was like, ‘Wow. It's like I'm a contract player.' It was because they knew and they put it out there and one person at every table [asks about] The Hulk, which is coming out this summer while we're talking about this.

LR: I'm only asking because I saw some of the footage.
RDJ: OK, great. But here's the thing, you're asking because they wanted you to ask.

LR: No. I'm asking because I wanted to know what your input was.
RDJ: Right. Why did you want to know? Dude, I'll spend the next 20 minutes on this. Let's talk about the f***ing truth because the truth is that you saw this and they made you want to know about that. Damn it. It's OK.

LR: You think they wanted me to know?
RDJ: Do you think they were just sitting up there and thinking, ‘Let's see. I wonder if it'd be fun to have this in the thing?' They're smart. They're a big company and they know what to do.

LR: Tony Stark would know what to do.
RDJ: Yeah, but RDJ, is like, ‘Woo! Yeah! Let me paint Thor on my forehead? Wee!' What do I care? I just think it's interesting to note how we are maneuvered, for whatever it's worth.

LR: Moving on, was it important to keep Tony Stark true to the comic for its fans?
RDJ: Yeah, that was super important to us because being faithful to the fans is the best Tony Stark that will ever be in terms of the way it was. I just like this idea too, when there's so much reference and then you get new people involved and they go, ‘Ah, we don't need to look at those comic books. Look, the action sequence with the F-22s.' I was like, ‘Wait! Whoa! Hi, guys. They spent 45 years, really smart people, really talented artists, really good writers on this. Don't you think we can give [it] 45 minutes?' At a certain point artistic license is to not realize that what you need is already there.

For the rest of the interview go to Latino Review.