When given the chance to join the MCU, Don Cheadle didn’t take much time to decide. Quite literally so, as the actor was given only two hours to make his final decision before the role was about to pass on to another actor. Recently, the actor shared this information with the media.
An Interview
Don Cheadle spoke about his career, stating that when the famed superhero franchise first offered him the role of War Machine back in 2010, he wasn’t given much time to think. The 58-year- old actor also revealed that he was at his kid’s birthday party when the studio called him to offer the role but gave him just two hours to decide if he’d sign for an upcoming years-long commitment. Fortunately, after discussing it with his wife and agents, Cheadle made his decision within that time. As a result, he took over the role of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man’s faithful sidekick James “Rhodey” Rhodes aka War Machine from the previous actor Terrence Howard in Iron Man 2 (2010).
The Conversation
As Don Cheadle recalled the incident, he said he received the call in the middle of his child’s laser tag birthday party and was given only one hour initially to decide whether to sign the massive six-movie deal! Then the studio personnel explained to him the planning details of the upcoming Iron Man installments and also the bigger and more ambitious MCU project- Avengers. So, everything had to be fast and he had to decide if he would be in or out within one hour before the studio had to move on to the next actor with the offer. After knowing that he was at his kid’s birthday party, the studio extended the time up to two hours. Crucially, maintaining the Marvel style, the studio didn’t give Cheadle any idea of the character’s storyline at that point.