Last year’s summer blockbuster The Avengers paid Robert Downey Jr. a stunning $50 million to play Iron Man Tony Stark.

After the film’s release, The Hollywood Reporter speculated that Downey Jr’s remuneration may be in the neighborhood of $50 million, based on both box office receipts and the terms of his Marvel Studios deal.

When GQ asked if this amount was correct, Downey said, “Yeah. Isn’t that crazy? They’re so pissed. I can’t believe it. I’m what’s known as ‘a strategic cost.’ ”

That’s $50 million for only 37 minutes of screen time.

What makes Marvel so pissed? The fact that they agreed to pay Downey that much. It creates an unbalanced scale, allowing actors like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth – who may say they are just as vital to the Avengers franchise as RDJ – to now bargain with the phrase, “Well, you paid Robert this much. I’m at least worth half!” This might push up expenditures.

When Marvel first announced the first Iron Man picture, the company stated, “Under no circumstances are we prepared to hire him for any price,” according to the film’s director, Jon Favreau. But Downey’s persistence earned him a screen test and, eventually, the role. On May 3rd, the third installment of the series will be released.

Downey Jr. also suggested that he might not be “Iron Man” in future sequels. The injuries he got on site, which caused the third film’s production to be delayed, prompted the 47-year-old actor to contemplate what else he wants to accomplish with his career.

“It got me thinking about how big the message from your cosmic sponsor needs to be before you pick it up,” Downey Jr. said. “How many genre movies can I do? How many follow-ups to a successful follow-up are actually fun?”

He conceded, though, that walking away will be difficult.

“Here’s the thing. At whatever point I’m done with this, I’m going to have a bit of a crisis, because I probably haven’t even fully ingested how much I’ve enjoyed it, how much it’s meant,” Downey Jr. remarked. “It so came out of kind of relative obscurity as this second-tier character from the Marvel universe, and I feel I was part of making it something more.”

Downey also spoke candidly about his standing in the highest tier of his generation’s actors, stating that he believes he will win an Academy Award at some time in his career.

“Because I’m young enough, and I’m running down being occupied with these kind of genre movies, close enough,” he explained. “Even the next thing we’re doing with [wife, Susan Downey], I’m so confident about it. It’s the best script the studio has; it’s the best thing I’ve read in years”

Iron Man 3 will be released on April 26 in the United Kingdom and May 3 in the United States.