In a podcast conversation from Empire with Oscar-nominated star Kerry Condon of “The Banshees Of Inisherin” and star of Liam Neeson’s recent thriller, “In The Lands Of Saints And Sinners,” which just came out in the U.K., the actress revealed some interesting tidbits about her time working with Marvel, such as keeping Iron Man’s death a secret.
Condon voiced Marvel’s F.R.I.D.A.Y., the A.I. bot that assisted Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark in the Iron Man suit over five films: “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019).
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Condon says she’s still playing F.R.I.D.A.Y. in Marvel’s cruise ship adventures, but it’s uncertain if she’ll be head in the movies again.
“She still lives on in the theme parks and whatnot, but funny enough, I met Robert Downey Jr. only for the first time a few months ago,” she revealed with a laugh. “It was so wild cause the two of us were like, ‘Oh wow,’ like, ‘I’ve been your sidekick, and we’ve never met until now.’ it was really surreal and more funny than anything cause I was like, it’s me, I was that voice all the time!’
“It was a crazy lucky experience for me because I never thought it was going to be so many movies,” she continued. “I just thought it was going to be ‘Age Of Ultron’ and just this in and out gig, and next thing I know, I’m being brought back like all the time, constantly brought back.”
“So, I really loved it, and it really opened my eyes to voice work,” she added. “It’s a lot harder than you think; I think people who do cartoon voices and stuff [like that], it’s really a skill, and I definitely wasn’t sure if it was my forte; I definitely have to practice it a little bit more, because I’ve only done that one role.”
Condon even said ‘Endgame’ was so secret that when she was recording her lines for it, she didn’t even know that Tony Stark died for real. In fact, the last words that Tony Stark ever hears before he dies is F.R.I.D.A.Y. saying, “Life functions critical.”
“It’s funny because I don’t get the script; they don’t tell me ’cause it’s so top secret, honest to god, it would drive you to drink,” she laughed. “And I was like, ‘But he’s not really dead, is he? He’s not totally dead?’ and they didn’t answer, ’cause they don’t wanna answer in case I go off telling everyone, and they all just kinda looked at me really sadly and said, ‘Just say it likes the saddest thing you’ve ever said. And I was like, thinking about all the residuals I had made from all the movies, and I was like, ‘Well, that won’t be hard! The whole thing has come to a halt!’ So that was the end of that for me; it was an end of an era.”
While Condon assumes she’s out of a gig and she may not be wrong. You never really know with Marvel; F.R.I.D.A.Y. could pop up again at some point if someone is trying to access old Stark info, maybe in “Armor Wars” with Don Cheadle? Time will tell.
