Tony Stark's Biggest Real-World Inspiration Makes Perfect Sense Even in 2022
A genius, an inventor, a controversial and larger-than-life persona? Yep, you definitely know the guy.
A genius inventor, a billionaire, a ladies' man, a talented CEO and a personality with a great sense of humor and irony – yes, Elon Musk does look like a perfect inspiration for Marvel Cinematic Universe's Tony Stark aka Iron Man impersonated by Robert Downey Jr.
It was exactly the case! Iron Man writer Mark Fergus has recently opened up on how the creative team put their heads together to come up with the superhero's role model. Musk was not the only candidate as the team had two more extraordinary people on their minds. Namely, the grumpy Apple founder Steve Jobs and the flamboyant business mogul and ex-US president Donald Trump.
In an interview with New York Magazine Mark Fergus described how the writers came up with Musk inspiration exactly:
"Trump was fun before he became president — he was actually kind of a goofy celebrity. Steve Jobs was always serious and angry; he never quite had that gift of the bullshit, the working the crowd that Musk has a real natural talent for. Musk took the brilliance of Jobs with the showmanship of Trump. He was the only one who had the fun factor and the celebrity vibe and actual business substance."
Quite a revelation! Remember how Elon Musk briefly rubbed shoulders with Tony Stark at the Monaco Grand Prix in Iron Man 2? The two billionaires – the fictional and the real one – exchanged a few words. Now that we've learned the behind-the-scenes this cameo looks quite logical.
Actually, it is not the only time that Elon Musk has become a source of inspiration. Award-winning actor Sir Mark Rylance who played billionaire tech CEO Peter Isherwell in the apocalyptic black comedy Don't Look Up has admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that his character is based on no other than Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk. And it looks like it doesn't stop there. There surely will be even more characters in the future.
We know who the movie makers and writers (and Generation X in general) are inspired with. But what about Musk? What's his source of inspiration? Well, in 2017 the South African-born billionaire admitted that "the thing that drives me is that I want to be able to think about the future and feel good about that. That we're doing what we can to have the future be as good as possible, to be inspired by what is likely to happen and to look forward to the next day. That's what really drives me, is trying to figure out how to make sure things are great."