Don Cheadle Talks War Machine And The Suit

Entertainment Tonight’s report from the set of Iron Man 2 kicked off on September 24th with a featurette giving a general overview of their visit while witnessing the filming of the Monaco Grand Prix scene. Since then they’ve been posting character-focused segments providing a more detailed look at the film and the cast’s experience while making it.

The newest video features Don Cheadle chatting about his character Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, who eventually becomes War Machine. Cheadle confirms that we will see a fully suited War Machine, but what we see in the film isn’t always what Cheadle is actually donning (no pun intended). There’s a wearable version of the suit that weighs in at about 60 lbs. and then there’s motion-capture bands allowing the suit to be inserted into the film using CGI.

There’s also an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow, who discuses the budding relationship between Pepper Potts and Tony Stark. She explains, “Things progress for Pepper professionally and she’s offered a really exciting position, so that’s really good for her, but in the meantime she’s very threatened by the new assistant who comes in, which Scarlett Johansson plays.” Johansson’s clip has far less plot detail and more personal information. She talks about her experience joining the cast, the Black Widow outfit, doing stunts and working on a male-dominated set. In Robert Downey Jr.’s piece we get a nice look at some footage showing off the production’s big budget. There’s green screens, fake blood and a whole lot of explosions.

It’s too bad the reporters don’t ask more probing questions, but the videos are still fun to watch. Check out all of the spotlight segments below.

Perri Nemiroff

Staff Writer for CinemaBlend.