Rebecca Hall Elaborates On Almost Playing The Villain In Shane Black's IRON MAN 3
Black has previously admitted that Maya Hansen was originally going to be a much bigger character in Iron Man 3 until Ike Perlmutter stepped in, and now Rebecca Hall has shared her thoughts.
During a candid interview back in May of this year, Iron Man 3 director Shane Black revealed that the Marvel threequel originally showcased much bigger roles for both Stéphanie Szostak and Rebecca Hall, and that the latter's character, Dr. Maya Hansen, was actually going to be a principal antagonist to Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark.
According to Black, however, this all changed when the infamous and since deposed Ike Perlmutter became concerned that a female villain wouldn't "sell enough toys".
While speaking with Postmedia Network (Via Toronto Sun) before the TIFF premiere of her new film, Christine, Hall confirmed that this was "100% true", before elaborating on what went down.
“I signed on to do something that was a substantial role. She wasn’t entirely the villain – there have been several phases of this – but I signed on to do something very different to what I ended up doing.
Halfway through shooting they were basically like, ‘What would you think if you just got shot out of nowhere?’ I was meant to be in the movie until the end... I grappled with them for awhile and then I said, ‘Well, you have to give me a decent death scene and you have to give me one more scene with Iron Man,’ which Robert Downey Jr. supported me on.”
Hall goes on to praise Marvel for finally getting a Captain Marvel movie off the ground, and feels they've learned from their mistakes. We'll also see Hela as the main villain in Thor: Ragnarok, so perhaps this is true - but the prospect of seeing Guy Pearce's much-maligned Aldrich Killian take a back seat to a female baddie in Iron Man 3 still intrigues, and reeks of missed opportunity.
What do you guys think?
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.