Robert Downey Jr. Talks 'Iron Man 2'; Says Film Is About A 'Dysfunctional Family That Saves Earth'

Robert Downey Jr. has talked “Iron Man 2″with Collider and disclosed a few more details of the story.

He reveals that Gary Shandling (who was recently identified as part of the cast) plays a Senator:

“Day one I’m doing a Senate hearing where the government is saying the Iron Man tech needs to be turned over to the Senator and the Senator is Gary Shandling. And we had this fantastic day that was somehow this controlled chaos of a Senate hearing where I keep interrupting them and dah dah dah.”

RDJ also says it’s a much deeper film than most people will expect:

“The set pieces have to do with things that aren’t your typical like bad guy conflict. The relationships are very complex and hilarious. The motivations Tony has and why he turns around and does things has completely to do with his own internal processes and it really is, I think, as much as we tried to in the first one really see behind the façade of this kind of storytelling. We really, I think, leaving ourselves open to…we’re kind of trying to tell a story about how a dysfunctional family saves life on Earth as we know it.”

He’s sweating his first-ever sequel and the expectations it holds:

“And I’ve never been in a sequel and it’s very daunting because I feel the expectation of the millions of people who watched it and enjoyed it and told me that it was a little different than your usual genre picture and that they expected us to not screw it up. So I actually have taken “Iron Man 2” probably more seriously than any movie I’ve ever done, which is appropriately ridiculous for Hollywood.”

RDJ also gives major props to the rest of the cast, especially Mickey Rourke, but notes that he hasn’t appeared in any scenes with him yet, but has seen footage. “Iron Man 2” is scheduled to open May 7, 2010 if all goes according to plan.