"Much to my surprise, I really didn't fit any of the criteria for the kind of actor they thought they should cast," Downey told the Los Angeles Times in 2008.
Ultimately, he was paid a reported $500,000 (plus back-end points) for the first Iron Man movie, so Favreau got to have it both ways—a very familiar face at an up-and-coming (or up-and-comebacking) price.
By the time they were shooting The Avengers, however, Downey had a beyond-sweet deal, and his eventual haul for that film alone was said to be about $50 million.
"Isn't that crazy?" he acknowledged when GQ asked him about it in 2013. "They're so pissed. I can't believe it. I'm what's known as 'a strategic cost.'"
It would have been difficult for anybody to get their minds around the height of the mountaintop he was perched on, considering where he had been and where he ended up. "Nothing makes perfect sense," Downey said. "I've explored it so much, and right now I just look back at [his past] as: It was certainly character-building."
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