Series: Iron Man

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'Iron Man' sashays down the red carpet in London

Robert Downey Jr., Gwenyth Paltrow, Jon Favreau and Terrence Howard landed in London today to walk the red carpet and sit down for the UK premiere of 'Iron Man'.

"It's great.  I've been traveling around the world and I'm not someone that likes to fly.  So, I've been from Mexico City all the way to Australia, Korea and to Paris, Rome and now I'm in London," said Favreau.  "I was in Berlin, and everywhere we go, the people seem to love the stars, they seem to love Gwyneth and everything she's wearing and are more fascinated with her footwear than the politics of the United States of America, so it's encouraging to see that people are willing to be distracted and are ready to escape from all their problems that are going on right now and have a good time at the movies."

Terrence Howard talked about what inspiration he found in the characters of the film.

"You have Superman and superheroes, but anyone can become an Iron Man - any woman, any boy any old man that has the tenacity to create something from seemingly nothing," Howard said.  "Limitations are our achievements.  That's the genius of Tony Stark to take something simple and make it great."

Downey agrees that there's more to 'Iron Man' than meets the eye, which includes a change of pace from dark, brooding heroes.

"Well I was saying this this morning.  Jon and I were big fans of what (Christopher) Nolan was able to do with Christian Bale in the whole Batman franchise and they did this very dirty, dark complex take on the superhero.  And we thought they did that as good as it can be done so we tried light and simple," said Downey.

Favreau chimes in, "Marvel heroes have always been a little off beat and Iron Man has always been an outsider among the crazy off beat superheroes so there's only one guy to go to and that's Robert Downey Junior because you want a guy who brings a good sense of humour, spontaneity, an unexpected sense of authority and somebody who would make people who wouldn't normally go to see a superhero movie come and see a superhero film and Robert Downey really takes that off and makes it into something very special."

The director also said he had no qualms about casting the sometimes-controversial actor.

"It's the role of a lifetime for him.  A lot of people thought 'Chaplin' was but I happen to think that this guy was destined to be Tony Stark, because Robert's grown up in the public eye - everything good and bad that's happened to him in his life has been everybody's seen and Tony Stark he's also a guy who's grown up in the public eye.  He's a genius and everyone respects his talent.  The fact of the matter is that Robert Downey Junior is a great improviser and has a great sense of humour and he finds the real humanity in something that could otherwise be a two-dimensional comic book figure."

Downey said that getting the role was not the biggest surprise for him. "I was surprised that I went after this as hard as I did but I felt like I had to but it paid off, I think."

Paltrow said she too is excited to have taken on the role of Pepper Potts. "It's a real honor to play her, someone who's been in the hearts and minds of the Iron Man fans for so many years.  I guess I read a lot of the comics and try to understand who she was, what motivated her, what kind of woman she was."

Browse the entire UK premiere gallery or enjoy this sampling.