Mark Ruffalo Talks AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and the Future Of The Hulk
We've heard for a while that the Hulk is going to have a much more prominent role in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and fans hope that one day we will see the Hulk get his own movie again. Like all of you, I'm excited to see Hulk storyline play out in Age of Ultron.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Mark Ruffalo talks about his next big Marvel movie, the character he plays, and where the future of the Hulk lies. Here are a few of the most interesting parts of the interview.
When talking about the state of Banner at the beginning of the film, he gives the following info:
"I think he’s definitely matured a little bit since the last one. He’s become more acclimated to this thing and to being part of the team. I think he feels more a part of them all. But in this particular take on it, it’s a much more character-driven version of The Avengers than the first one. It gets a little deeper into each character. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not happening anymore, so there’s not that much time spent with the S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff. I feel that every character has their own cool little thing happening. I had great stuff in the last one but there’s even more stuff in this one. It’s nice, because I know this character now after playing him twice…"
Here he goes into a little more detail on the Hulk and the control Banner has over him:
"Hulk is the kind of wild card. He’s the loose cannon of the group. He’s more like an atom bomb. You could guess where he’s going to go but he could go either way. I think that there is, obviously, the day when everyone expects it to go wrong and that day comes. And they’re ready. And Bruce designed the contingency plan. As much as you feel Bruce has some mastery over it – certainly, with ‘I’m always angry’ and he can turn into it at will – I still feel that there’s some part of him that doesn’t completely trust it and doesn’t completely trust himself.
"There’s a battle going on between these two opposing egos that live inside him. He’s definitely worried that the day is going to come when the Hulk gets the best of him, and maybe won’t release him, maybe won’t give him back. The Hulk knows this too. There’s a moment in here where he, begrudgingly, decides to go back to Banner. Who knows where these things will go, but as Bruce is able to impress his will on the Hulk, going into The Hulk and being inside the Hulk when he’s raging, The Hulk’s will is also growing and able to impress upon Bruce. That makes for some wild things. We’re laying the groundwork for that here. It’ll be interesting to see if that ends up being what would be the next Hulk movie."
When asked about the next Hulk film, he said:
"Who knows, really? That’s such an amorphous thing. Nobody has talked to me about that yet. It seems people want it, but it’s tough. They’ve already done two of ‘em, and they’ve only done two Thors, they had a nice run on Iron Man. I feel like they have their plates full. There’s probably other people they’re keen on doing but I think people have shown that they’re ready to see another one."
He goes on to explain the challenges of making a standalone Hulk movie, as well as the special effects work that goes into bring this character to life:
"It’s a tough nut to crack. Traditionally you’re watching a guy who doesn’t want to do the very thing that you want him to do. It’s hard to take for two hours. I don’t know how many times you can use that same framing for it, but now he’s maturing and there’s a cool dynamic growing between Banner and The Hulk. And the CGI is so much better. The stuff we can do now, you can do a real performance. I’ve been working with Andy Serkis [at his Imaginarium studio] and he has it set up where you go in there and you just start working on a character. It is so exciting to me, because I can do whatever I can imagine, with a team of people of course.
"The nuances you can bring… I can make The Hulk as real as any other character I’ve ever played and in ways more nuanced, more interesting. It’s boundless. The technology is at such a place where I can do that in real time. There’s a big giant screen and a bunch of them all over the place and I’m in my stretchy motion-capture suit and there’s The Hulk right in front of me, doing everything I do. You become a puppeteer and you’re creating the way this guy moves and the way he expresses himself, and there’s a facial capture happening at the same time. In the past you would do your face, you’d move your head and you’d do all the scenes with your features and they’d capture that all and scan everything. Then I said, ‘Why don’t I play the scenes and give you that?’ We did that but it was very much taking the information from the actor and then gobbing it all together. Now I can do all of that with every nuance and I hang out there for six hours at a time. Let’s try this, what if he’s like this? All of a sudden you’re building this thing that no-one ever imagined. It’s based on the script but it’s also free. What we can do with The Hulk now… oh my gosh, it’s going to be mind-blowing."
Hulk and Bruce Banner are such complex characters, and it sounds like Marvel is handling the character perfectly at the moment. I just hope we do get that standalone film somewhere down the line, and I have my fingers crossed for Planet Hulk. To read more from the interview, click here.