Mark Ruffalo Almost Hulked Out For ‘The Incredible Hulk’
The man who is now the Hulk was almost the Hulk a lot earlier.
Four years earlier, in fact, since Mark Ruffalo was director Louis Leterrier's first choice to play Bruce Banner in "The Incredible Hulk" (2008), the stand-alone adventure of Marvel's green giant, which preces his appearance in Joss Whedon's superhero mashup, "Marvel's The Avengers" (2012).
The role went to Edward Norton in that film, though the "Fight Club" star was apparently the frontrunner for Marvel execs and not the young director, as Leterrier explained in a recent interview with Huffington Post upon the release of his new film, "Now You See Me."
"When people are asking me, because Mark Ruffalo is in this one ['Now You See Me'], who's the better of the Bruce Banners -- both are great; both are fantastic -- but I actually wanted to cast Mark Ruffalo as Hulk," said Leterrier. "And Marvel was like 'No, you should get Edward Norton because he's more famous.'"
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Leterrier stresses that he enjoyed working with Norton on "The Incredible Hulk" but takes credit for planting the Ruffalo seed with Marvel, even though the studio didn't think he was right for the part when the studio was starting out with their first wave of superhero films.
"[Marvel] are the ones who wanted Edward -- and I was thrilled to meet him and work with him," said Leterrier. "I wanted Mark Ruffalo. And they were like, 'No, no, he just does smart, intellectual movies.' Which makes sense, then and there in his career. But that's how I know him. We've stayed in touch and it's why he said 'absolutely' when I offered him the part in this one ['Now You See Me']."
See Mark Ruffalo in a clip from "Now You See Me":
Even though Mark Ruffalo has become a fan favorite with his worry-face portrayal of Bruce Banner in "The Avengers," Norton's sincere, underplayed performance is probably the best thing about "The Incredible Hulk," an otherwise muddled mess of a movie that Marvel seems to want us to forget ever existed. Indeed, Leterrier reveals that it was something of a troubled production from the start.
"The problem on both 'The Incredible Hulk' and 'Clash of the Titans' is a problem I've encountered since I came to Hollywood," said Leterrier. "'Incredible Hulk' was my first Hollywood movie and I really wanted to work with Marvel and I really wanted to do that movie with American actors. And then they were like, 'Oh, welcome, welcome. Great news, Louis. We just got a release date. It's a year from now.' I'm like, 'Fantastic, we have to go. Where's the script?' They said, 'Actually, that's the problem, we don't have a script.'"
See Mark Ruffalo in a "Marvel's The Avengers" featurette...
There was also a tug-of-war between the director and studio when it came to the main focus of the movie. Leterrier wanted a character-driven thriller; Marvel, feeling pressure from the backlash against Ang Lee's moody, experimental "Hulk" (2003), wanted a big-scale monster mash.
"A movie is a sum of compromises until you grow into your own independence," said Leterrier. "I always try to bring the character and the actor forward. It's very obvious in 'The Incredible Hulk.' The first half of the movie is really mine and the second half is the studio's expected Hulk movie -- two giants kicking each other's ass."
[Related: ‘Planet Hulk’ Movie Rumors Get Smashed]
Leterrier certainly didn't distance himself from the project or Marvel, though. He cast Mark Ruffalo in "Now You See Me" shortly after "The Avengers" had wrapped and was notably curious about where the Hulk was headed in Whedon's film.
"He was asking me about what the take was, and I said we were just picking it up where you left off [in 'The Incredible Hulk'], basically," said Ruffalo in a recent interview with Yahoo! Movies. "And aging him," the 45-year-old actor added with a smile.
Now, the Hulk is in a great place, with "The Avengers" being hailed as the first live-action film to finally get the green Goliath right. Mark Ruffalo will be reprising his role in "The Avengers 2," and there's a good chance we'll be seeing the actor taking center stage in his own stand-alone "Hulk" movie in the near future as well.
See Mark Ruffalo in stills from "Marvel's The Avengers"...