Random Things You Didn't Know About The Avengers Cast (21 items)

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  (#3) Benedict Cumberbatch Once Saved A Cyclist From Muggers

  It seems superheroism isn't such a farfetched idea for Benedict Cumberbatch, according to a story featured in The Sun. According to Uber driver Manuel Dias, when Cumberbatch was his passenger, they noticed four men jumping a cyclist. As Dias explained, Cumberbatch jumped out of the car and rescued the guy:

  I went to turn down into Marylebone High Street, and we saw four guys were pushing around a Deliveroo cyclist. My passenger jumped out, ran over, and pulled the men away. They turned towards him, and things looked like they were getting worse, so I joined in. He stood there instructing them in the street, shouting, "Leave him alone."

  Dias concluded his story by saying, "The cyclist was lucky; Benedict's a superhero. Benedict was courageous, brave, and selfless. If he hadn't stepped in, the cyclist could have been seriously injured."
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  (#5) Scarlett Johansson Worked With Three Stuntwomen To Hide Her Pregnancy

  Scarlett Johansson was pregnant while filming Avengers: Age of Ultron, so the crew got to work making sure they could hide the pregnancy. Amazingly, they didn't need to trim any scenes, and that was largely due to the work of three stuntwomen who worked on the film. After all, pregnancies may be hidden easily enough on a sitcom, but this was an action movie.

  Director Joss Whedon explained the situation in an interview with Entertainment Weekly: "She's not going to spend the whole movie carrying groceries. We didn't trim any scenes. We're like, 'We'll make it work.'"

  The stuntwomen wore dotted maps on their faces, so the VFX artists could digitally map Johansson's face onto theirs. It was all done in post-production, and nobody watching the movie could tell. Chris Evans joked about how much the women looked like the actress, saying, "It's always funny. You walk by, 'Hey, Scarlett - oh, weird. You're not Scarlett at all. Sorry.' A lot of fake Scarletts around."
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  (#19) Terrence Howard Made More Than RDJ, Gwyneth Paltrow, And Jeff Bridges In The First 'Iron Man'

  In the first Iron Man movie, Terrence Howard played Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes opposite Robert Downey Jr., and he was not only first big actor signed on to the project, but also the highest-paid person in the cast. That was despite the fact that Gwyneth Paltrow had an Oscar on her mantle at home. Chalk the higher salary up to Howard's agent, and how they managed to put the actor's deal together before filming began.

  When it came time to get the sequel ready, Howard was cut from the cast and was replaced by Don Cheadle. Rumors abound on the internet as to why this happened, and most of them have to do with the money. After Iron Man and its lead actor became major hits at the box office, Marvel couldn't just repeat the same deals with its actors as the first go-around. Rhodey's role was minimized, and if Howard wanted to appear in the sequel, it is estimated he would have received only 50% - or even 20% - of his salary from the original film.

  According to this version of events, rather than accept a fraction of his pay, Howard walked. If the story's true, it's easy to understand why.
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  (#15) Chris Evans Was Apprehensive About Becoming Captain America

  Chris Evans was hardly new to Hollywood - or superhero movies - when he took on the role of Steve Rogers/Captain America. Still, he didn't run headfirst into the idea of playing the character, and he actually turned it down several times.

  Evans has dealt with anxiety his whole life, and he wasn't sure that he could take on a role that required a 10-movie commitment with so much public attention. He mentioned these issues in a Twitter video, and going to therapy to resolve them. In therapy, he eventually realized, "Maybe the thing you’re most scared of is exactly the thing you should do."
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  (#6) Vin Diesel Knew Every Meaning Of 'I Am Groot'

  You might think that Vin Diesel walked into a recording booth and simply said, "I am Groot," over and over again to get enough takes for each of his appearances as Groot in the MCU, but that's not at all what happened. James Gunn had a special script made just for him, so he would know what Groot was saying. This helped him with the proper inflection and tone, which made the repeated phrase sound different each and every time.

  Gunn mentioned the script in a Facebook post on Diesel's page, saying, "This is the special Groot version of the script that only Vin Diesel and I have, where every Groot line is printed in English instead of Groot, so Vin will know what the various 'I am Groot's' mean. I love putting this thing together."
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  (#20) Brie Larson Was A Pop Singer Before Making It Big In Hollywood

  It seems there aren't many actresses these days who haven't recorded a song or two on their meteoric rise to superstardom. Scarlett Johansson has performed more than a few songs, but she's not the only female Avenger to do so. Brie Larson was also a professional singer, and recorded her debut and only album in 2005. The album, Finally Out of P.E., contained 13 songs and a bonus track. One song, "Hope Has Wings," was featured in the 2005 animated film, Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus.

  Larson discussed her singing career in an interview with KidzWorld.com, where she said the following:

  I think that I write about stuff that others don't write about. I don't have a bunch of love songs cause I don't really have much boy experience. I just write about what I am actually going through in my real life. That's where the title from my album comes from - Finally Out of P.E. My P.E. teacher didn't like me at all, which was hard to deal with cause I was usually such a teachers' pet. So when I found out I got my record deal, I was like, "Yes, I'm finally out of P.E."

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