Ultimate Iron Man contest winner Joseph Casillias spent the day with me [Dante] at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. We had a great time, and have the pictures to prove it. Because he wrote the best essay, Joe got the chance to interview most of the cast of Paramount Pictures, Iron Man at the end of his day at the Con. As a first time interviewer Joe was dynamite, I only had to pull him off of one other reporter as he got a little over zealous trying to get to Terrance Howard, and only one staff member was hospitalized in the ensuing melee. It took me three interviews before I could leave a place without a black eye. Read on as he asks Mr. Robert Downey Jr. the tough questions. So tough, that Joe gritted his teeth and glared menacingly throughout the entire interview.

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CraveOnline: Are you sad that the film is wrapped?

Robert Downey Jr.:  I wouldn’t wish this on an enemy but, I went right from this and two weeks later I was shooting in Hawaii with Ben Stiller and Jack Black, that is fantastic but wrapping something like this, and then going into pre-production, and make-up test’s and starting things so soon, truth be told, it was ideal. Because the crash from this would have been so hard, that I probably would have been in my hood going, “Am I Tony or am I not Tony? When can I be Tony again?”

CraveOnline: What did you like about Tony?

Robert Downey Jr.:  I got geared up today, and I put on the suit from the movie, I was kinda playing with my hair in the bathroom and like, (Avi) Arad walks in, [he’s] the whole reason there’s this studio to do this movie and I’m just with him in this big ‘can’, the handi-capped bathroom like taking off my boots and putting them back on and he’s like, “ That was good on Thursday”, and he starts talking to me about some other movie that his friend is doing that I should read for, and I had heard about people’s career’s being fast-forwarded in conventional  bathrooms, but back to business, I gotta [get it together], they just unveiled the Mark I suit and Favreau’s all P.T. Barnum and he’s diggin’ it and I’m like, he’s been doing it for three days—he knows the drill, I just came in, I was kinda like, struck dumb, it’s like how do you get out of it? Just go like this for two hours (he makes a waving gesture).

CraveOnline: This being your first convention experience, can you tell us what it’s been like for you?

Robert Downey Jr.:  You know what it’s like, I mean, it’s massive, it’s a true democracy with a lot of chaos in there too, and I get why it’s become so popular, not that it wasn’t popular before but now it has become more integral to marketing and approval and all that, but it’s that ‘thing’, like surfing, you don’t know until you go out and catch that first wave, and see what it feels like, its so wild, and chaotic and I’m walking in there with a Tony Stark suit and security guy are all there making sure everyone gets out of the way so I can get to my signing, I’m like, “Aww God.”

CraveOnline: Is there more pressure than normal because Iron Man is such a well known character?

Robert Downey Jr.:  There’s always that point in any process where you feel the pressure, and that’s self-centered fear, in this case I think it was like, I just became a geek for Iron Man myself, and the added value is that I think I got the chops to be Iron Man. But, they were in pre-production, and I have a production office nearby, where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose, and there was a lot of energy there, and I’d roam around and I’d talk to the art department and just hanging with all these monsters of cinema and effects, storytelling and cinematography. So, I really soaked it up, and I was just like, “What do I need to do?” And yeah, half the time I was like swilling creatine, and working on my arms for those eleven seconds in the trailer where I’m like [he makes a repulsor ray sound]! I will never be that muscular again.

CraveOnline: Michael Chiklis (from Fantastic Four) is reported to have complained about having to wear the ‘Thing’ suit, did you complain about having to wear the Iron Man suit?

Robert Downey Jr.:  We took turns complaining, there were two other guys, I would come in on the day that he was shooting second unit, and he’d be like laid out, covered in sweat, and still in like half the suit, and he’d be like, “Duuude.” And then he’d be like, “Your on tomorrow right?” And I’m like, “I’m on dude, I got this close up where I explain things…” and he’s like, “cool.” We had like a support group, he’d come in the next day and I had the Iron Man suit on and he’d be like, “Man, are you cool? Can I get you anything?” Then we’d both go visit the third guy.

CraveOnline: Will this movie change your career, will you possibly move on to a smaller movie?

Robert Downey Jr.:  There are no small movies. After that trailer played for the first time, I was, so tripped out, I was proud just to get that reaction.

CraveOnline: Last question, do you prefer the Ultimate Iron Man, or the standard Iron Man?

Robert Downey Jr.:   I’m a modernist, I’m an equal opportunity destroyer.

Be sure to check back on CraveOnline for more interviews from Joe with the cast of Iron Man.