Monday, September 17, 2012

'The Avengers': Hulk-like temper lurks in easygoing Mark Ruffalo - Detroit Free Press

Don't let Mark Ruffalo's serene demeanor fool you. He admits there's a bit of an Incredible Hulk temper lurking underneath.

Ruffalo, who comes off as a guy who could give Clark Kent a serious challenge in the mild-mannered department, plays brilliant scientist Bruce Banner -- and his big, green, mad-as-hell alter ego, the Hulk -- in the superhero tale "The Avengers."

Ruffalo said he had anger issues for a time.

"When I was a young actor, if you came to my apartment, you would have seen pictures and photos hung in the most bizarre places, where they were covering holes in the wall from auditions that I didn't get or slights that I felt I had suffered.

"But over time, I've, like a rock that's spent many times being tumbled around in the sea, I've sort of gotten the edges polished off of me."

An Oscar nominee for 2010's "The Kids Are All Right," the 44-year-old Ruffalo has built an impressive list of credits in independent and studio films, including "You Can Count on Me," "Shutter Island," "Zodiac" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

He never saw himself as superhero material, let alone the Hulk, considering the Marvel Comics character had starred in two big-screen misfires over the past decade.

"It's creepy, I have to say," Ruffalo says while flipping through a photo album with stills of him transformed into the Hulk.

With the foundation Ruffalo has built in "The Avengers," writer-director Joss Whedon has said he would love to see him in a solo Hulk movie. Ruffalo says he would be game.

"I haven't heard any talk about it from the producing side of the table, but people have been tweeting it. There's been a campaign growing. I would be into doing it, I would think, if we could come up with the right story line."

More Details: 'The Avengers'

Now showing

Rated PG-13; sci-fi violence and action, a drug reference

2 hours, 23 minutes

Review at www.freep.com

No comments:

Post a Comment