Shaun Toub helps hero in “Iron Man”
From Friday’s The Oklahoman:
By Matthew Price
WORD BALLOONS
His character assisted Lex Luthor a decade ago in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” but actor Shaun Toub is on the side of the superheroes, now. Toub plays a key role as Yinsen, who helps Tony Stark become Iron Man in the upcoming film.
“Each of them have their own thing, their own following,” Toub said in a telephone interview. “But I think ‘Iron Man’ is going to be a bit different, and I think people are truly going to enjoy watching it; it’s a really good one.”
Toub, who played Lex Luthor’s assistant Asabi, now plays Yinsen, a doctor and fellow prisoner-of-war who keeps Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) alive as he builds his Iron Man suit.
“The suits are amazing; it makes you want to fly,” Toub said. “I think everybody who sees that film, they’re going to want to get into those suits.”
Toub is perhaps best known to audiences for his role in last year’s “The Kite Runner” or the Oscar-nominated “Crash.”
Toub said he only had passing familiarity with the Iron Man character, but the talent arrayed in the film drew him to the production.
“It was a different genre of film than what I’ve been doing lately; I try to always change it up,” Toub said.
“I’m a fan of Robert’s, I think he’s a wonderful actor,” Toub said. “And then when I met with them, the energy was great. I liked Jon Favreau, and I know he’s an actor so I knew he was going to be fun.”
Toub said Favreau was very open to ideas, and some last-minute wardrobe changes helped Toub nail down the Yinsen character.
“When I got there, doing the rehearsal process, we were rewriting the entire script and inventing the character,” Toub said. “Two days before we shot basically an idea came to mind, which I don’t want to give it away, but Robert was very supportive.”
Toub pitched his idea to Favreau, who was interested.
“To the wardrobe department’s credit they got on it and they went shopping and we came up with a brand new Yinsen. And that was the character that I thought that Yinsen should be, and it was very comfortable for me, and Yinsen was born.”
Toub said the cast — including Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges — make “Iron Man” more actor-friendly than many action films.
“There was plenty of room to work. A lot of the superheroes and the action movies, it’s mostly action-driven and special effects have a lot to do with it and all, but in this case, this is very much a character-driven movie as well,” he said. “What the actors bring to the table really does make a difference and it shows. Jeff Bridges is very good in it, and Robert really does make a difference. I think at first people were surprised at why Robert Downey Jr. would be hired to play Iron Man, but when they see the movie, they will understand why and it totally makes sense.”
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