“It Wasn’t Supposed to Be My Movie.” The Iron Man 2 Actor Claims That 80% of His Scenes Were Cut Because His Performance Overshadowed Robert Downey Jr
The villain from Iron Man 2 could have had a larger and more elaborate role, but the actor's efforts, much to his displeasure, didn’t pan out.
Iron Man 2 was the Robert Downey Jr. show in which he proved himself a staple of the MCU. The film, in which his character faced off against Whiplash, was another showcase for the actor in the role of Tony Stark. However, the artist wasn’t the only star of the film. After all, the villain, Ivan Wanko, wasn’t insignificant in this production.
However, Mickey Rourke, who played him, claims that his role was reduced in post-production and 80% of the scenes featuring him ended on the cutting room floor. He suggested that this was because his performance overshadowed Robert Downey Jr. who was the star of the show, and they wanted to keep it that way. Rourke told the story during an interview with Andy Lee, stressing how frustrating it was for him.
They cut 80% of my performance out. […] It wasn’t supposed to be my movie, you understand. I told whatever company it was to go f**k themselves and kiss my a**.
The actor confessed that he had carefully prepared for his role, and as a result was disappointed that he was treated this way and much of his work was in vain. In another interview, he recounted that he tried to make Ivan a multi-dimensional character, which he fought with the filmmakers, whom he persuaded to his vision, but in the end his idea lost out to Marvel's expectations and thus some of his scenes ended on the cutting room floor
[W]hen I did Ivan Vanko in Iron Man, I fought… You know, I explained to Justin Theroux, to the writer, and to [Jon] Favreau, that I wanted to bring some other layers and colors [to the charater], not just make this Russian a complete murderous revenging bad guy. And they allowed me to do that. Unfortunately, the [people] at Marvel just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy, so most of the performance ended up the floor.
In such a situation, Rourke's dissatisfaction isn’t at all surprising. The actor gave a lot of himself for the role, and in the end his work turned out to be for naught anyway, since so much material featuring him was thrown away.
