When RDJ joined Twitter I fretted, because I love RDJ lots and Twitter has betrayed me before—betrayed all of us—ruining many a celebrity crush. But so far, RDJ’s Twitter is not bad. So far, he’s not an aggressive tweeter. He’s not offering daily affirmations or abusing the quota on exclamation points, and though his favorites are a little on the “really dude?” side, at least he isn’t re-tweeting compliments. And one thing RDJ is proving to have a knack for is the Twitpic.
I refuse to call these “set photos”. RDJ is not the only one tweeting from the Avengers 2 shoot in London—Mark Ruffalo (whose Twitter persona is comparable to the dorky dad at the PTA) is also in on the action, playing straight into fan fantasies by giving us Science Bros 2.0— and every time an actor posts a selfie the geek sites go nuts calling them “set photos”. No. A selfie is not a set photo. These are set photos. Or these. Set photos illuminate something about the actual production. An actor taking a picture of themselves standing around is just, you know. A Tuesday.
But RDJ’s Twitpics do raise a question. Not pictured in the dinner photo are Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans (Ruffalo is there but out of frame), which could be because they’re not in London? They started shooting in March and people have been coming and going from Europe and South Korea over the last month, and Evans, especially, when he wants to, can disappear. Anyway, they’re not the ones I’m curious about. The two new Avengers, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen aren’t there. And in the “assembled” photo RDJ posted last week, only the original six Avengers are accounted for.
The Avengers got really close while filming and shilling their movie. For the most part, they’ve stayed close in the two years since The Avengers came out (helped along by the fact that they’ve mostly worked together since then). It would be intimidating to join up in later stages of the franchise, if only because that initial group, well. They’re the cool kids, the ones who have done it all before. Do ATJ and Olsen get invited along to group dinners? And even if they do, do they go?
I mean, London is ATJ’s home town, plus he has a young family to be with (although new parents Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky are at dinner) after his work day is done. And Olsen is cagey. I’ve met her—she is intriguing as f*ck but a huge part of her appeal is how coy and bashful she is. I have a hard time seeing her as social butterfly. But…now I want to know about that group dynamic. This is what I’m going to do with RDJ’s Twitter for the next five months—look for clues about how well the Avengers and their newbies get along.