Robert Downey Jr. 'Avengers movie was a risk'

Robert Downey Jr. says his he and his superstar castmates risked ridicule by signing up to the highly anticipated Avengers movie.

Robert returns as Iron Man in the comic book mash-up which also includes Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow,Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury.

“It is a risk,” says the Sherlock Holmes star.

“You just have to hope the costumes all look right otherwise it’s going to be like a comedy of errors like, ‘Oh no we’ve made a terrible mistake!’ But everyone demonstrated that they could carry this off and we did.”

46-year-old Downey whose wife Susan is expecting their first child together recently admitted he is starting to “stress” about turning 50.

“It’s funny. I used to say that I’d welcome a bullet to the forehead if I ever ended up as a 40-something, remarried, marketable, big-action movie dad living in a cosy cul-de-sac in suburban LA. Now I am that guy,” he said.

“It just goes to show that I usually don’t know what’s good for me in life. But I’m getting better at knowing that stuff. I don’t need to rub against the grain nearly as much as I used to. I’m 46 now, so the countdown to my half-century has begun. I’d have to be completely deranged not to stress about that.”