未来主义者：走下银幕的《钢铁侠》

    小罗伯特•唐尼现在已是好莱坞最有影响力的明星之一，不过这位现年48岁的演员却坦承自己并不是个善于交际的人。他说：“我会想人际的事，我在脑袋里跟他们说话，但我往往不会主动去认识别人。”《财富》杂志（Fortune ）日前专访了这位钢铁侠和福尔摩斯的扮演者，请他谈谈自己的事业以及电影行业的未来，采访中他谈到了埃隆•穆斯克是怎样影响了他对科技、商业和娱乐的看法。经过编辑的采访文稿将刊登在1月13日的《财富》杂志上，以下是比较长的一段采访节选：

    问：你的照片出现在一本商业杂志封面上，这已经不是第一次了，《钢铁侠》主人公托尼•斯塔克的脸已经上过不少头版了。

    答：对！我想有个完满的结束。

    问：经常有人把埃隆•穆斯克与电影《钢铁侠》的主人公托尼•斯塔克相比，而且《钢铁侠II》的部分情节就是在穆斯克的太空探索技术公司（SpaceX）里拍摄的，你俩见过面吗？

    答：这还要追溯到《钢铁侠I》的准备拍摄阶段，当时SpaceX公司还在一幢更小的楼里，埃隆•穆斯克当时也还不像今天这样家喻户晓。我当时在为电影做功课。我很想访问两个人，一个是约翰•安德考夫勒（电脑界面公司Oblong的首席科学家），另一个就是埃隆•穆斯科。他真的决定成为一名火箭学家，我觉得这非常有意思。托尼•斯塔克和埃隆最像的地方就是一种惊人的自我能动性，它在埃隆身上表现得非常明显。我之所以想见安德考夫勒，是想从他那里获得一些纯技术上的建议。你还记得《少数派报告》（Minor¬ity Report）吧，影片里的人带着那种手套可以把屏幕移来移去的，安德考夫勒和他的公司把这种技术变成了现实，所以我想从他那获得些启发：如果托尼•斯塔克设计了他自己的软件和程序以及运行机制，那他会设计一种什么样的语言来操纵他的环境？在这几部电影拍摄的过程中，不仅托尼的角色要求这些，其它环节也一样。

    而埃隆的精神对我很有启发，因为托尼•斯塔克也是把一件事做得很好、很成功，然后又去做另一件风险大得多、意义也重大得多的事。

    《钢铁侠》第二部中，埃隆•穆斯克还在电影中客串了一把，与托尼•斯塔克在电影里一起讨论了一个项目，如果没记错的话应该是电动飞机。

    还有其他商业领袖或成功人士给了你的表演以启发吗？

    霍华德•休斯对我也有一点影响。但当时从这个角色中，从这部片子里，我看到了自己的一个巨大的商机。我需要的是把我自己放到一个跟我以前想象的不一样的角度上，想象把我塑造成一个更有闯劲、更硬朗的人。实质上就是想要塑造一个不同的人物形象，它能给你带来更多的机会。

    Robert Downey Jr. has become one of the most powerful players in Hollywood. But the 48-year-old actor admits he's not much of a networker. "I think about people, and I have a conversation with them in my head," he says. "But I tend to not reach out." In an interview about his career and the future of the movie industry, the Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes actor tells Fortune about the real-life discussions (Elon Musk!) that have influenced his thinking about technology, business, and entertainment. Edited portions of the interview will appear in the January 13 issue of Fortune; a lengthier excerpt of the Q&A follows.

    Q. This isn't the first time your image has been on the cover of a business magazine. Tony Stark's face has graced the cover of a few news titles.

    A. Yes! I wanted to close the circle.

    Elon Musk has been compared to Tony Stark, and parts of Iron Man 2 were filmed at a SpaceX facility. Did you ever meet?

    The genesis of that goes back to preproduction for Iron Man I, when SpaceX was in a smaller facility and Elon Musk was not a household name. As part of my research, I wanted to interview two people: John Underkoffler [the chief scientist at computer interface company Oblong] and Elon. I thought it was really interesting that he literally had decided to become a rocket scientist. And although the similarities kind of end with a certain -- what would you say? -- just an amazing self-agency, you know, that I think Elon really embodies. I was looking to Under¬koffler for straight technology [advice]. You remember in Minor¬ity Report, the character is wearing those gloves and moving the screens around? He and his company built that into a reality, so I was taking some cues from him: If Tony had designed his own software and his own programs and the machinery to operate them, what sort of language would he design to be able to ma¬nipulate his environment? And over the course of all these mov¬ies, that's been as much a part of Tony's character as anything else.

    The spirit of Elon was really inspiring to me because Tony goes from doing one thing so well and so successfully, and goes to do something that's a lot more risky and much more far reaching.

    And then in the second Iron Man, Tony Stark has a conversation with Elon Musk about doing a project together. I think it's electric jets if I'm not mistaken.

    Were there any other business leaders or powerful people who inspired your performance?

    There's a little bit of Howard Hughes in there. But in this character, in this potential franchise, I saw a huge business op¬portunity for myself. What was required of me was to put myself forward in a different light than I had been previously imagined, and to imagine being perceived as a bit more dashing, a bit more masculine. Essentially you aspire to a persona that puts you into a different light, which you can equate to more opportunity.