Was there any specific way you wanted to take Tony Stark in this film?

With The Avengers, Tony was becoming a team player and with Iron Man 3, it was him transcending his dependency on the tech that’s keeping him alive. So I thought, ‘Okay, now what?’ But there’s all this unfinished business. There’s the matter of a certain wormhole that opened over New York and the imminent threat that still implies, so Tony has turned his attentions more toward a bit of a post-Reagan era, Star Wars-type notion and he likes to call it Ultron.

How do you balance giving the audience what they want but also surprising them?

The big idea is that all of us, to a man and woman, tend to think like the audience, ‘All right, we’ve seen that before.  How do you put a new spin on it?’ While there’s certain aspects of familiarity that can comfort me as just someone who goes to movies and loves movies and loves franchises and sequels and all that stuff, it’s a different era, so what would have worked five or 10 years ago is completely obsolete now. I guess it’s always that trying to just stay a couple of inches ahead of the cresting wave, but a lot of that is just intuitive. Joss Whedon (the director) really brought it to another level by writing a very fun, deeper and wider story.

What do you love about coming back to this character again and again?

I love the people. This time around I felt like I really got closer with the cast members and Joss and I are pals. Meanwhile there’s always that feeling that you never forget your first time. From Iron Man 2 into The Avengers and Iron Man 3, there’s always this feeling of life going on. Like, ‘Why isn’t it like it was in college now?’ But more than any other of the Marvel movies since Iron Man, for me I feel like this is a feeling of an ending of an era and the beginning of another. Obviously, some of that is informed by the new blood coming through, with Elizabeth Olsen (who plays Scarlet Witch) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (as Quicksilver), and I welcome it. So there’s a sense that we’ve been around just long enough to be a guard that may or may not be passing or changing.

Tony Stark always seems to be the driving force behind the villain in these films. Is that true for this one?

I don’t know, but maybe it’s convenient because he’s the guy who’s presumably technologically responsible. He can take a bit more risk with defects of character, so as it happens I think he’s a good guy to have around to do dumb and/or bad things.

It’s interesting that now the mental aspect is coming into play. You don’t just fight people physically anymore, right?

With the bad guys, it’s a psychological edge that they’re getting with their moves, and sometimes that can be a good thing. Sometimes placing that doubt and having you directly experience your fear and figuring out where your triggers are and stalling and pushing those buttons is really good because it gives you a real mental toughness. And the other thing too is quiet as it’s kept, there’s a real sense of unity between the Avengers at this point, so there’s something to attack: their sense of onus and responsibility for each other, their sense of how and where they fit in, their sense of what they’ve sacrificed to get there and how that can ultimately be a liability to the team.

What is Tony Stark’s role now with the Avengers?

I don’t know of anyone in the history of any superhero franchise who seems to never run out of money! Tony’s footing the bill and he can swing it, obviously. Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) having taken over the business means to me that it’s like the wife is looking over the books now, so everything’s going to be a little more stable than when daddy was just writing cheques. That said, there must be enough of a surplus for him to play with. The real thing is that he wants to localise, look after and nurture this necessary counterbalancing faction, which is the Avengers, and have them all where they are. Then there’s part of him that’s still the designer and the tweaker and a bit of an engineer and the mechanic who just wants to help them all do things a little bit better. So his comfort is like someone who buys a football team and then wants to redo their uniforms and give them better equipment and keep them safer on the field and make them stronger and faster.

What does shooting all over the world add to the film?

Two things: one is that the market and the audience and the fans have become so much more spread out and it’s really a global property. It was the responsible thing to branch out. There’s also something much more authentic about it when it’s not just a felt sense of somewhere but ‘Okay, they’re there’. I’m certainly glad it happened and it seems like it’s really adding to the overall scope of the movie.

What has been your favourite thing in this new script?

To me, it’s further developing the complexities of the relationship between all the main folks. I like that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has a beef with me and then eventually has to say I’m right. It’s just interesting and the way it all wraps up to me is super exciting, but strangely my favourite part about Avengers: Age of Ultron is what’s brought into potential at the end. 

Tony Stark likes to be in charge but things have shifted to Captain America being more in charge. What is Tony’s take on that?

There are really only two relationships in Tony’s life in which he’s been willing to assume a lower status — one’s with Pepper obviously, equal footing, and the other is with Cap. It’s always whoever does the job best should probably do that job and Tony’s bringing a lot to the table and Cap has the most experience. It’s also nice to feel like there’s someone under whose tutelage you become better at what you have to do and no one’s more battle-seasoned than Cap.

How does it help that there have been several movies for all the characters now and you’ve all gotten to know each other much better?

There’s just a closeness and I guess we’re getting into that realm and territory that folks have on the Potters or the Bonds or whatever. When you’ve been at something for some time, there is a sense of extended family that happens in the cast. Everything seems more balanced. Everyone’s definitely carrying more of their weight and it makes space for new talent because at the end of the day, that’s the whole thing... that you always just want to leave things strong enough and well enough to be able to support the weight of new talent.

What does the future hold for Tony Stark?

It’s hard to say. I’ve been talking with Kevin Feige (the producer) and some of the creatives and there are really good ideas. It’s been this thing where some part of it was just smart luck and then the rest of it has been this kind of thing that’s gently unfolded and at the right pace for the right amount of time to keep working. So whatever the future holds for Tony, 
I want it to be a future that works for the highest good and I just want it to keep feeling like there’s more to do and more to say.

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