Mark Ruffalo Tried to Talk Marvel Out of Casting Him in The Avengers

By now it’s crazy to think of any actor besides Mark Ruffalo playing the role of Bruce Banner / Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but as fan know all too well, Ruffalo wasn’t always the guy behind the Jade Giant. Ruffalo wasn’t the first actor to play Hulk in modern comic book movies (that was Eric Bana in Ang Lee’s Hulk); Ruffalo wasn’t even the first actor cast as the rebooted MCU version of Hulk (that solo film starred Ed Norton). However, as Mark Ruffalo now tells it, when Marvel came to him for a ‘Third time’s the charm’ attempt at casting Hulk, Ruffalo tried to turn them down!

In a new interview with Variety, Ruffalo recalled the following about landing the role of Banner/Hulk in the MCU:

“I did try to talk them out of casting me,” Ruffalo recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t know if I’m the right guy, I’ve never done anything like this.’ Between Joss and Robert, they were pretty convincing that I could do it. I was scared. I was really scared. I’m still scared. The technological aspect of it makes it really hard to work that way. I struggle with it all the time. But my motto is make fear your friend. Just keep pushing yourself into those places where you feel scared or challenged.”

That’s a pretty accurate insider breakdown of how Ruffalo made the transition from awards acclaim actor to blockbuster franchise star. Before starring in Marvel’s The Avengers in 2012, Ruffalo had wracked up a filmography of acclaimed films, working with a nice variety of some of th top directors in the business. That list included Zodiac (David Fincher), Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese), The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko), Reservation Road (Sam Mendes), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Charlie Kaufman), and Windtalkers (John Woo), to named a few. Marvel fans were as surprised as cinephiles, when it was eventually announced that Ruffalo would be Avengers‘ Hulk.

However, it’s now ironic to hear Ruffalo speak of his continued fear in playing Hulk. The actor has made the role more and more his own with every new MCU Installment Hulk appears in (4 films since the first Avengers), and the technical wizardry to create the character has gotten so good that Hulk really does look like Ruffalo’s face enlarged and given a green paint job. In terms of performance, Ruffalo has arguably risen high enough to challenge Andy Serkis as Hollywood’s best motion-capture actor, which proves the actor not only faced his fear – he Hulk-size smashed it.

Mark Ruffalo will (presumably) next appear as Hulk in Marvel’s She-Hulk series on Disney+.