During the demanding production of 2012’s The Avengers, Robert Downey Jr. found a very Tony Stark-like way to survive long Marvel shooting days: he hid snacks everywhere.
Mark Ruffalo later revealed that Downey had a habit of stashing food around the set, especially during scenes filmed inside the Avengers’ high-tech laboratory. While most actors waited for breaks between takes, Downey seemed to have created his own secret food network behind props, inside set pieces, and within easy reach whenever filming slowed down.
The funniest example came during the now-famous scene between Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, when Stark casually offers Banner a handful of blueberries. According to Ruffalo, that moment was not originally scripted. Downey simply pulled the blueberries out unexpectedly, stayed in character, and offered them to him as if Tony Stark naturally kept snacks hidden in a lab.
Instead of cutting, the filmmakers kept rolling. The gesture felt so natural that it added to Stark’s eccentric charm. It also fit perfectly with Downey’s improvisational style, which often made Tony feel unpredictable, relaxed, and strangely human even in the middle of superhero chaos.
Crew members reportedly stopped trying to control the habit. Downey’s hidden food became part of the rhythm of filming, and the directors eventually accepted that his snack stashes might create usable moments. In this case, they were right.
What could have been a simple behind-the-scenes quirk became one of those tiny unscripted details fans still love. It showed how Downey blurred the line between actor and character, turning even a handful of blueberries into a memorable Marvel moment.