Elon Musk has often been compared to Downey Jr.’s Marvel character, Tony Stark
Robert Downey Jr. has urged Elon Musk to ‘control his behavior’ despite admitting he’s only met him ‘a few times’.
With his love for tech, Downey Jr.’s Iron Man character Tony Stark might have a lot in common with Musk – but the actor and the tech mogul don’t typically run in the same circles in real life.
While Musk has been busy appearing at Donald Trump rallies, sending rockets into space, and discussing all of it on Twitter, Downey Jr. sat down for an interview on for New York Magazine’s On With Kara Swisher podcast.
Swisher claimed in the interview that Musk had been ‘cosplaying’ Downey Jr’s Marvel character, who first appeared in a movie in 2008.
Tony Stark is of course based on the Marvel Comics character, but it’s worth noting that Iron Man director Jon Favreau did admit in 2016 that Musk had influenced Tony Stark.
Favreau made clear that Iron Man is ‘based on the comic book’, but he told the Recode Decode podcast that Downey Jr. and Musk spent time together to ‘give us some insight into what it’d really be like to be Tony Stark’.
Favreau also noted that Musk allowed the director to shoot part of Iron Man 2 at SpaceX, describing the CEO as being a ‘very good friend of the Marvel family’ at the time.
But with Musk now in the spotlight more than ever before, thanks both to his ownership of Twitter and his extensive support for presidential candidate Trump, Downey Jr. has expressed belief that he needs to reign things in a bit.
He told Swisher: “I’ve only met him a few times. I just wish that he would control his behavior a little more.”
The actor went on to reference Musk’s plan to put humans on Mars, saying: “This idea of ‘It’s all okay because we’ve gotta get to Mars’ doesn’t really hold water with me.”
But with that being said, Downey Jr. acknowledged that Musk has racked up some noteworthy accomplishments in his time.
“You have to look at all that [Musk has] done that demonstrates why he’s valuable,” he said.
“Nowadays separating the individual from their behavior is a tough thing to do because hell is other people—and that has been hijacked in this information age, to divide us rather than allow for discourse, debate, and dialogue.”
As well as being inspired by Musk, Iron Man screenwriter Mark Fergus told New York Magazine in 2022 that Tony Stark’s personality had also been inspired by Trump, as well as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
