By Zack Zeigler
He didn’t have to wear anything heavy, clunky, or skintight like his other co-stars, but Mark Ruffao still had wardrobe issues while playing the Incredible Hulk in “Marvel’s The Avengers.”
 |
| "Marvel's The Avengers" poster featuring Hulk & Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) |
“The first day I was a miserable bastard," he admitted. "I was like, ‘Where's my costume man? This sucks!’ [The other Avengers] all looked dope and ripped up, and I'm there in a not very flattering linen suit,”
The getup Ruffalo’s referring to was his motion-capture suit, which was a necessary evil in believably morphing him from Bruce Banner into the monstrous green super hero.
“I’m the only actor to ever play Banner and the Hulk,” Ruffalo said. “So I've been working a lot with [visual effect team Industrial Light and Magic] on him.”
When we last saw Banner in 2008’s "The Incredible Hulk," he had come to an understanding that despite his best efforts, for better or worse, there was no way to rid himself of the Hulk.
“We're kind of going for this world-weariness of accepting and trying to get to the point where he can live with it, and maybe master it,” Ruffalo revealed. “He's not sulking and miserable.”
 |
| Mark Ruffalo and Roberty Downey, Jr. star as Bruce Banner/Hulk and Tony Stark/Iron Man in "Marvel's The Avengers" |
Eric Bana and Edward Norton have both played Banner in recent “Hulk” films, so to distinguish his performance from theirs, Ruffalo decided to focus on Bill Bixby’s interpretation from the 1970s and ‘80s TV series for inspiration.
“[Bixby’s Hulk] had kind of a charm about him,” he said. “He was on the run, but he was still able to flirt and smile sometimes, and occasionally he'd crack a joke.”
One Avengers member Ruffalo said Banner finds particularly interesting is billionaire genius Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.).
“There’s a simpatico between us,” he said. “[Banner] looks at Stark and he's like, that's the dude who did what I was intending to do. He's the model. He made it work. So Banner and Stark have a very cool relationship in the movie.”
Remember to buy your tickets for "Marvel's The Avengers" now!
Any news of maybe another Hulk film? I know maybe they are waiting to gauge how successful Ruffalo is in the Avengers, but on the flip side, would be great for Ruffalo to have a Hulk movie under his belt, to consolidate the role as his own!