We might remember the first Iron Man movie for providing the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a perfect start, but it seems that things weren't looking good for the movie as it moved into production back in 2007. At least that's how Jeff Bridges – who portrayed Obadiah Stane, aka Iron Monger - recalled it.
The 66-year-old actor told The Hollywood Reporter that they felt that the Iron Man script wasn't "really right" after a reading, and he assisted with the rewrites:
We had two weeks’ rehearsal, and we basically rewrote the script. And the day before we were going to shoot, we get a call from the Marvel guy, saying, “Oh, no, no, no. None of this is right.” So we would muster in my trailer and rehearse while the guys were in the studio tapping their foot, saying, “When are they going to come?”
According to the actor, they were "still trying to figure out" the scenes they were about to shoot for the 2008 Jon Favreau flick. Bridges also discussed Iron Man set difficulties during another recent interview with Variety. While talking about how he convinced himself to move along and ignore the issues, he said:
I made a little adjustment in my head. That adjustment was - Jeff, just relax, you are in a $200 million student film, have fun, just relax.
Whether or not Jeff Bridges was exaggerating, he must be really glad that all those extra efforts for the "$200 million student film" paid off eventually. Many (including me) believe that it was the best among the three Iron Man movies and one of the best MCU installments to date.
When THR asked Bridges about the possibility of being a part of another superhero movie in future, he said, "I really set out to not develop a strong persona and mix it up so the audience would have an easier time projecting whatever character I was playing."