Robert Downey, Jr Plays the Piano and Masters Kung Fu to Prep for Iron Man | W Magazine

Go behind-the-scenes of W Magazine's March 2007 cover shoot with Robert Downey, Jr. for a quick interview in which the future Iron Man actor plays the piano and reveals why he loves boxing. These days, Downey is a man whose cup runneth over—in the throes of wedded bliss, he's sober and appearing in director David Fincher's much anticipated March release, Zodiac. Since his Oscar-nominated breakthrough in the 1992 film Chaplin, his career has consisted mainly of a string of secondary roles, often charming but seedy scamps and losers. The surprise is that in March, at age 41, Downey will begin shooting his biggest-budget lead role ever—as a Marvel comics superhero, no less—in Iron Man, which will costar Gwyneth Paltrow and is scheduled for a May 2008 release. In the mythology of Downey's flawed-hero life, he has now entered a bold new chapter: redemption. Talking about Zodiac is ostensibly the purpose of today's interview, but the actor parades through numerous other subjects along the way. Take his martial arts regimen, for instance. He practices something called Wing Chun kung fu, which was codified in the 18th century by a Buddhist nun, and credits the discipline with keeping him physically and emotionally balanced. But he also notes that the martial art puts him in touch with his “butch” side—apparently a matter of some concern to the man who flaunted his sexual ambiguity to play a wonderfully fey book editor in Wonder Boys. “Butch” is also a word he applies t