Thor: Ragnarok Star Mark Ruffalo Insisted on Doing All of Hulk's Motion Capture Himself

Mark Ruffalo is famous for playing the Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He debuted in 2012's The Avengers and has appeared in team-ups with the rest of Earth's Mightiest Heroes ever since. He hasn't ever starred in a solo Hulk movie, but he did have a cosmic adventure the god of thunder in Thor: Ragnarok. In that movie, the Hulk spends most of the time on screen, leaving Bruce Banner locked inside of him. Taika Waititi directed the film and recalls that Ruffalo insisted on doing all of the motion capture work himself for the Hulk's CGI appearances in the movie.

"He has very strong opinions about what Hulk would say and how he would say it," Waititi tells Variety. "People assume, 'Oh, well it's a CGI character. Why would an actor do the movements?' But he insisted on doing all the work in motion capture. All of that stuff is him, dressed in those ridiculous pajamas that you have to wear with ping-pong balls on his head."

Ruffalo was also interested in diving into the new dynamic between the Hulk and Bruce Banner. "He wanted to show that Hulk was driving the vehicle and Banner was left in the trunk," Waititi says.

Ruffalo's future as the Hulk after Avengers: Endgame is uncertain. He says that an appearance in the upcoming She-Hulk series on Disney+ is still a possibility. "There's nothing completely at a place where it's a done deal," Ruffalo said. "There's some talk of having Banner/Hulk show up in She-Hulk. If we come up with something good, that would be really interesting. Right now that's about it. That's all there is on the table."

He also has ideas for finally getting to make a standalone Hulk movie. "There's an idea that I think could be really interesting," Ruffalo said. "We've never really followed him into his life. He's always kind of off on the side. He's like the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the Avengers. It'd be interesting to fill in all the blanks about what happened to him in between all these movies."

Marvel Studios' upcoming releases include Black Widow opening on November 6th; The Eternals on February 12, 2021; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on May 5, 2021; Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on November 5, 2021; Thor: Love and Thunder on February 18, 2022; Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022; and Captain Marvel 2 on July 8, 2022. Upcoming Disney+ additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe include The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, What If...?, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight.