Marvel’s Iron Man trilogy really set them up in the superhero world. Moreover, the first installment in 2008 is what got them recognized, following which two more sequels were released. However, 2013’s Iron Man 3 was particularly record-breaking. It became the seventh-highest-grossing MCU film of all time, per ScreenRant. It was also the final installment of the Iron Man trilogy which saw Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark fighting against antagonist Ben Kingsely’s Mandarin.
Honestly, Marvel owes it to Iron Man. Although, much of it also needs to be credited to the eccentric Robert Downey Jr., whose acting finesse left no room for criticism. RDJ broke his ankle while filming a stunt scene in Iron Man 3 but later joked about it, saying it only made the movie better.
Robert Downey Jr. does not regret his ankle injury
The 58-year-old actor usually tried to perform his own stunts. Hence, in one such scene where Robert Downey Jr. had to plummet from one platform to another, while supported by a cable, he broke his ankle. This shut down the filming for some weeks. The incident was later explained by Guy Pearce, who played the role of the nerdy scientist Aldrich Killian in the movie, in an interview.
While talking about the versatility of the characters he had played, Pearce revealed to GQ,
“Robert broke his ankle in the middle of that film, ’cause he had to do a stunt where he had to jump from one platform down to another platform and be on a cable. They wanted to rehearse it, and he said, ‘No, I don’t need to rehearse it,’ and he jumped, and the guy holding the cable wasn’t ready or something, and he landed hard.”
Soon after Iron Man 3’s release, RDJ told Entertainment Tonight that his ankle injury was for the better rather than the worse. He claimed it gave them time to do script provisions that would only add to the film’s benefit. Well, we can’t complain since the movie collected a gross box-office income of $1.215 billion worldwide, per Forbes. Therefore, RDJ said,
“I did a write-up. Broke my ankle once but then that gave us time to do some more script provisions. It really isn’t that big a deal, it happens all the time. What doesn’t happen all the time is that the third movie in a franchise series winds up actually meeting the expectations of a pretty savvy audience.”
While stunts are usual in most superhero action movies, it is surprising how RDJ ended up in such a place.
How did Robert Downey Jr. break his ankle?
Downey’s injury during the production could have turned out to be a hindrance to the film. But that was if it did not cast RDJ as the lead. Rather over-enthusiastic, as he claims in the ET interview, RDJ tried to perform the stunt with cables at once. Usually, there are a number of rehearsals to be done, but RDJ felt he could ace it in one go. The result is self-explanatory.
As the book The Story of Marvel Studios suggested, the cut where RDJ broke his ankle was actually so good that it was added to the final cut, per ScreenRant. While on-set injuries are a usual occurrence in the film industry, the scene with the injury making it into the film is not. The relativity in RDJ and Tony Stark’s persona indicates that there was no one better who could’ve played the part.
