Joss Whedon: Avengers: Age of Ultron ‘broke me’

Joss Whedon has been very ambitious when it comes to directing the Avengers films. He will be the first to admit that filming them was very difficult, but no matter how difficult the first film was you would think that that it would have gotten easier to film the second. Everything gets easier with practice, right?

Not when it comes to Avengers: Age of Ultron. The filming process filled Whedon with a doubt that was foreign to him.

Speaking with Hero Complex, Whedon revealed that he wanted to make Age of Ultron something that could stand on its own. His ambitions betrayed him – they left an echo of doubt in his own ability:

I wanted this film to be its own movie. I wanted it to be better, if possible, than the first one — not that the first one was the best movie ever made, but I wanted to do better, just be better at shooting.

I wanted to work harder on the script. I wanted to spend more time just really working every aspect of it, because why go again if you’re not doing something new? And I shot it very differently, and all of that became sort of a burden where I was like, “I want to make something great!” And then I heard that voice in my head every time, “But is this a great idea?” And suddenly I had doubt that I don’t usually suffer from.

Whedon revealed that it was almost odd how difficult film the second film was, going on to say, "It’s weird because the first one was very, very, very, hard. This one was much harder. It a little bit broke me."

He got to the point where he didn't want to think of anything, no creations, nothing. "I was like, 'I am not doing anything like that, I’m not even going to think of a limerick.' Every time I think, ‘Oh, I have time to create,’ I’m gonna be like, ‘OK, good. What’s wrong with the movie? What do I need to work on? What ADR isn’t finished? What do I need to think about? Let’s write a memo about this? How can I get a better version of this? Just keep pushing.’”

In the end, Avengers: Age of Ultron blew the roof off of opening night, outperforming the first Avengers. Whedon is proud of his work and everyone that was involved in the film

"But I am proud. I worked really hard. I’m proud of everybody in the movie, I’m proud of everyone who worked on the movie. … This child may be insane, but it’s mine. It’s like Ultron. It may try to kill you all. But I love it."

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