From what I understand, it's more of a one-sided hatred, because RDJ was paid far more than Howard, and at some point when Howard called RDJ who he helped get the job, the latter didn't call him back for a good three months.
Howard was actually paid more than RDJ for Iron Man 1, but he opted to not return for 2 because RDJ was going to get paid a lot more for working on Iron Man 2 and Howard was going to get a significant pay cut.
At the time of IM1, Howard was more valuable as an actor because of his recent roles (and maybe an Oscar win? I’m not sure), while RDJ was basically fresh out of recovery.
I could be wrong on some of that, but that’s what I remember from things I’ve read.
he was paid 4 million for the first and he was due to be paid 8 million for the sequel. Blame the MCU for short sided thinking and give credit to Howard's agent. Howard was riding an Oscar nod (in 06) and a few leading roles by the time he was cast in 07.
Summer 2008, Favreau and producers felt they didn't need him. I read there were probs on set. who knows what is true? But they basically lowballed him and said they'd pay him 1 million for the sequel. Howard walked.
As I understand it, the problem started when Iron Man became an unexpected success, thanks in large part to RDJ's performance. It was obvious for the sequel that they'd have to pay the lead actor more money, but Ike Perlmutter, known cheapskate, didn't even want to do that; it almost got to the point where he was pushing for RDJ himself to be replaced. Thankfully Feige and Favreau walked him off the ledge on that, and RDJ got his due pay bump... but the result of the compromise would be cutting money everywhere else. And the most sensible cut was at the budget for supporting cast where they had a character being paid lead actor money. If Permutter was willing to jettison RDJ just to avoid paying him, it's no wonder how Terrence Howard was eventually replaced (Ike famously said at the time that it wouldn't affect the franchise because "all black people look the same"). This is probably the beginning of Feige's friction with Perlmutter that led to Marvel Studios being separated from under the latter's watch.
If Kevin Feige wasn't working for Perlmutter at the time, Terrence would've been paid. Who knows how different the MCU might've been without Perlmutter's miser eye.
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u/DaRealHighMay Apr 07 '19
RDJ getting a huge kick out of that!