‘I Need the Help I Gave You’

Iron Man star Terrence Howardsays he felt betrayed and let down by Robert Downey Jr. after he was recast in the MCU. Howard, who starred as Tony Stark’s best friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes in the first Iron Man before being recast with Don Cheadle in future installments, claimed during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience that he was the one who pushed for the studio to cast Downey Jr. as the titular Marvel superhero in the first place.

“I love Robert. I love what he does. I loved him in Weird Science. Well if Robert wants to come in… So I called Avi Arad immediately. He was the producer on it and I’m like, ‘Avi, I hear Robert wants to come in but you guys don’t even let him audition.’ He’s like, ‘No we can’t bond him.’ I’m like, ‘Instead of the 4 and a half you want to give me why don’t you take a million dollars for the bond for him and let him audition.’ So he gets the part. Robert is like, ‘I love you. Thank you so much.’”

Downey Jr.’s Hollywood career has faced a serious slump due to personal issues prior to him leading the first Iron Man, a role that has seen him become an A-list superstar, with Howard saying that the studio would not even audition him. At the time, Howard was starring in The Brave One, with the actor revealing that one of the producers, Susan Downey, approached him and explained the issues that Downey Jr. was facing.

According to Howard, this led him to contact Iron Man producer Avi Arad, with the actor claiming that he even offered to relinquish $1 million of his own salary and use that for the bond for Downey Jr.

Terrence Howard Says He Reached out to Robert Downey Jr.

However, when Marvel Studios decided to go back on their deal with Howard come Iron Man 2, recasting his role, Downey Jr. was nowhere to be found. Continuing, Howard claims that he attempted to contact the Iron Man star, who by this time had quickly seen a career resurgence and was now the face of the MCU, but to no avail.

“When this other thing happened, I’m calling Robert and he’s doing Sherlock Homes. I called him 27 times and I leave a message. I’m calling his assistant. I’m like, ‘I need the help I gave you.’ I didn’t hear from him until 3 years later when I bumped into him at Brian Grazer’s wedding. But at that time I’d had Empire or whatever and I came back he was like, ‘Oh but everything worked out for you.’ That broke me a little bit.”

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Howard then revealed the details behind being recast, with the studio backing out of the three-picture deal they had with the actor.

“They said, ‘We want Terrence but we want him to come back for a million dollars, instead of the 8 million that we had agreed to. My agent had an emotional reaction to a business decision and he said, ‘F-you’, and hung up the phone. Immediately, they go to Don Cheadle. But instead of just doing that they had to spend, ‘Oh, he was terrible on set,’ and all of these things and went through all this stuff.”

Howard’s experience is likely to jar with those who have also had experience with Downey Jr., as the actor has now built up a reputation as one of the nicest and most helpful actors in Hollywood, even assisting his fellow Avengers in their salary disputes.