Remember the scene in Marvels Avengers 2: Infinity War where Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), called Tony Stark Jr. (Robert Downey Jr.), a douchebag. Although it got some laughs in the theater, it was still quite bizarre. Stark can be annoying and self-centered, but he had been working as Iron Man for a decade, which is the kind of work that cuts off some people. This strange dialogue turns out to have an unexpected origin.
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Let's get started. Tony has been summoned by Strange and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), to explain that the Infinity Stones represent Thanos' threat to the universe. The billionaire and the sorcerer get into a heated argument when the former suggests that the latter destroy the Time Stone in order to stop Thanos getting it. Strange, who has taken an oath to protect it, refuses to do this. Tony argues that Thanos is the bigger problem...
Dr. Strange: ...if we dont do our jobs. Tony Stark: Other than making balloon animals, what is your job? Dr. Dr. Strange: Protecting your reality, douchebag.
It turned out that d ouchebag wasn't in the movie script of Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus. In fact, the actor said to the Hollywood Reporter that he had improvised the key word after watching RDJ (and Tom Holland) improvise their dialogue during filming. There was a ripple effect when I called him a douchebag on set. Oh my god. Cumberbatch asked, "Did you call Iron Man a douchebag?" It got the same response at the cinema. I was just tired of being compared with Liberace or any other retorts that the guy with the same goatee as me had, so I tried my best to get rid of him. It's great fun to have that stuff. You find your feet. It becomes easier to do this more often.
This is what I want to get you thinking about for a second. Cumberbatch is often seen with Holland and RDJ on scenes both on Titan and in the spaceship they take there. He is watching Downey Jr., a man who has been improvising dialogue for decades and does it well, while constantly riffing on Holland. Holland has such a natural relationship with him that making up lines must have seemed easy. It inspires him so much that he allows himself to go off script. His big improvisational contribution in the cinematic juggernaut Avengers: Infinity War was...calling someone a duncebag.
Cumberbatch has not disclosed if he ad-libbed additional lines or if they were as well-received or as clever as a middle school taunt.
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