Jon Favreau became interested in acting in high school. Weighing in then at a whopping 280 lbs, it’s no surprise that his heroes were John Belushi and John Candy Heading out to Chicago’s Second City in hopes of becoming the next fat funny guy, he ended up washing dishes. Eventually he landed a minor role in the football comedy Rudy as Sean Astin’s chubby friend. With the money he made from that part, Favreau relocated to Los Angeles and got small parts in some movies.

Trying out for the part of “Fat Butt” in The Shawshank Redemption, he realized it was time to lose some weight and shed 80 pounds within a year. It was also during this period that Favreau wrote the screenplay for a film called Swingers.

Drawing on his own life, he wrote a story about a lovesick comedian’s pals helping him find female companionship after being dumped. Everything from experiences kicking around town with his pals trying to meet “beautiful babies” at Hollywood’s cocktail-nation swing clubs, epic video-hockey struggles to late-night diner excursions was all semi-biographical. When the script got circulated around Hollywood, several studios responded. But even though the studios wanted to cast name stars, Favreau held out, especially since he’d promised his friends they could be in it.

Instead of the $20-million budget that had been suggested, Swingers was shot for $250,000 with every word exactly as Favreau had written them and with every actor he’d written them for. Directed by Doug Liman and starring Favreau and Vince Vaughn, the movie was a festival and indie cult hit.

His career continued to get hotter, with roles in films such as Daredevil (2003), Something’s Gotta Give (2003) and The Break Up (2006). Meanwhile, his directing career is also hot, with his second feature, Elf (2003), starring Will Ferrell, grossing almost $200 million. Zathura (2005) didn’t do quite as well, but his latest, Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr. as the comic book hero, is a highly anticipated film by fans of the comics.

Delaware County Magazine: You’re one of the rare Hollywood people who actually talk to the fans on Internet forums like MySpace about the projects you’re involved with. How come?

Jon Favreau: I do. The fans are important to listen to since a film like Iron Man is a movie that they want to see done right and it’s a character that they care about. At one point I was giving out too much information I think. People were figuring out the whole movie. You gotta be careful. It’s like when you take the stand. You gotta plead the fifth at this point. There are too many movies out there now that don’t have to prove anything. The Dark Knight, after the last film, and from what I’ve seen from this, they have nothing to prove. People will come see that movie. Indiana Jones, you show the shadow of him putting his hat on and I’m going. And they work it right. You are definitely putting it out there when you’re putting this much stuff out there, but that’s what’s given us...nobody knew what Iron Man was when I came on board. And now everybody knows who he is thanks to comic con, and the footage we brought. If people think when I come onstage that they’re gonna see more than they expect, as long as the studios are cool with it, I like to do that.

DCM: How much pre-production did you have to do on Iron Man’s design?

Favreau: That was fun. A lot of that was Stan Winston, a lot of that’s our artists who are working on it. When the DVD comes out, I wanna put out a ‘making of’ with all the artwork, so you can see the progression of it. I just wanna make sure people like the movie first, because I hate when all the material comes out and nobody cares about the movie. I’m hoping people love it!

DCM: How did you go about preparing for the action sequences?

Favreau: There were two things that I drew on: one was the incredible collaborative resources I had around me, between Kevin Feige and the people at marvel and Avi Arad, the producer, in the pre-production process, and then the incredibly talented storyboard artists/previs people, and then the people at ILM... it’s a very big collaboration. And there you must rely on those people. Even filmmakers who are action directors, even a guy like Michael Bay, or Sam Raimi, they rely heavily on their team as well. They have a vision for things, but there will be hundreds of people to help see that vision through. So I was very open to collaborating on that. Because so much of it, I’m just seeing those sequences now, after two years. So I have a lot of respect for those action directors now. The other thing I drew from was what I don’t like to see, which is action that undermines the story of the film. Undermines the reality. Marvel films always had a tongue-in-cheek, irreverent quality, but never when it came to the action. It was always very serious about the stakes on winning and losing. So, you can joke around with Stark talking and things happening in a humorous way to him, but when that suits working, the stakes of that conflict better not be made light of.

DCM: So as it should be, it’s always story first and the action second...

Favreau: The action’s always a set piece. It has to propel the story. If it was a musical, the songs would have to progress the story. If it was a boxing movie, each match would have to represent something. Because there was so much CGI, I didn’t want to just have virtual cameras flying around. So we found a great practical air-to-air film like Top Gun, and said, “This was all real. This is before CGI. How did they film it? What did they have to do?” So if you look at all the flying stuff, we sometimes break the rules. We shot real planes. We didn’t just take a camera and do this. We flew planes and followed the planes with other planes. It might not be as dynamic as other movies where it’s CGI everywhere, but I think it adds to the overall storyline. We tried to keep it real and practical. DCM: What version of the comic does the movie stem from the most? Favreau: Ours is more classic. I really liked Adi Granov's version of the origin story done recently, and we borrowed from that a lot. He was very consistent, but expanded upon the original origin, and made it feel more plausible to today’s world. I liked that a lot. There are other things that the books don’t discuss, which is how the hell do you build an iron suit? We really went out of our way to try to make it plausible. It's still a comic book movie. There are certain leaps you have to make that are nothing but silly. But don’t be insulting to the fans. So the tone is more the classic look and feel. DCM: What appeals to you about Iron Man as a comic character? Favreau: I like that he’s not a teenager. It’s better with him being a 40-something. Robert [Downey, Jr.] really lobbied hard for the role, and there were enough people who really shared that vision that helped fight for it to get over the misgivings that are understandable in casting a guy who is not a young, new fresh face, but instead has a body of work that I thought really added to the role a complexity and credibility. A weight lifted off my shoulders as soon as we got the green light to cast the guy. I knew that he would be fun and interesting to watch. And it wasn’t like you were waiting through Tony Stark to get to Iron Man.