Don Cheadle Speaks On Shooting 'Tricky' Iron Man Sequel

When you're attached to one of the year’s most talked-about movie sequels, you can expect plenty of hype. It’s the kind of unfiltered fan boy anticipation that Don Cheadle, who's co-starring in the Marvel superhero film Iron Man 2 (due out May 7), can’t help but be in awe of.

The Academy Award-nominated actor (Boogie Nights, Hotel Rwanda, Crash) tells VIBE that shooting the big-budget popcorn flick was a refreshing and at times strange experience.

“I’ve been in action movies before, but this was an interesting way to make a movie,” says Cheadle of his role as Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes, the armored right-hand-man to Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr. “Having to deal with all the green screens and everything you have to kind of teach yourself a different way to work. It’s tricky stuff.”

Also appearing in the film is the seemingly hardest working man in Hollywood, Samuel L. Jackson, as the equally ubiquitous Sgt. Nick Fury, who's becoming a fixture in the Marvel projects. For Cheadle, the chance to appear in the same vehicle as his good friend was a blast.

“Sam works way more than I do,” he says. “Which is a trip because I golf with him in the mornings. I’m like, ‘How are you here at the golf course and have six movies coming out this year?’ I think he’s a clone.”

But Cheadle will be giving Jackson a run for his money in 2010. “I did another movie with director Antoine Fuqua and Wesley Snipes called Brooklyn’s Finest. And I just finished a film called The Guard, a movie I produced with Brendan Gleeson in the lead. It’s about an  Irish guard in Ireland. He’s like a foot cop who happens to come across these guys who are smuggling drugs. And I play an FBI agent from the States who comes over there to investigate it. It’s me and a whole Irish cast. My character is kind of noticeable  [Laughs].”—Keith Murphy