As we get closer to the release of Shane Black’s excellent “Iron Man 3,” we’ll interviews with some of the cast and key creative crew talking about their approach to the film and some of the outrageous choices they made.
Today, we’re joined by Guy Pearce, who plays Aldrich Killian, and Rebecca Hall, who plays Maya Hansen. The two of them are introduced in a sequence set at a major science conference in Bern, Switzerland in 1999. It’s a chance to wring some comedy out of Pearce’s appearance and Tony Stark’s overactive libido, and it also sets up pretty much every major motivation for the way things unfold in the film.
Pearce is intriguing to me because it’s obvious the studios all think of him as a guy who can carry a movie, and he’s been given plenty of high-profile roles in big films. For some reason, though, there never seems to be any momentum for him as a “movie star.” Instead, he’s mixed it up with small character roles, strange indie movies, and he makes choices that are hard to predict. His role in last summer’s “Prometheus” seemed like one seriously weird bit of casting, especially since it was such a make-up heavy role and there was no payoff to that. I asked him about the way make-up played into this performance, as well as the very aggressive physical nature of his character, and he seemed to be enjoying reactions to the film from people he was speaking with at the press day.
Rebecca Hall is not someone I think of as blockbuster-friendly. She’s worked on a much smaller scale than that so far, and I think she’s given some great performances in films like “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” “Please Give,” “A Bag Of Hammers,” and “The Prestige.” She brings a lovely brainy equality to her scenes with Downey, never giving him an inch, and that’s exactly what you want from a co-star of his.
We reviewed the film yesterday, and you’ll be able to see it for yourself when “Iron Man 3” opens in the US on May 3, 2013.