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Mark Ruffalo: Talking about the Hulk ' and Marc Jacobs
âHulk smash!â was all people expected of the rage-driven superhero â at least until 47-year-old character actor Mark Ruffalo turned the Hulk and his alter-ego, milquetoast scientist Bruce Banner â into fan favorites
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'Hulk smash!' was all people expected of the rage-driven superhero ' at least until 47-year-old character actor Mark Ruffalo turned the Hulk and his alter-ego, milquetoast scientist Bruce Banner ' into fan favorites.
Part of the process was the motion-capture suit that Ruffalo wore to map hundreds of points on his body to a computer model that was then brought to life by computer-generated imagery (CGI).
'It was mostly embarrassing,' according to Ruffalo, speaking to reporters at a pre-release press conference for Avengers: Age of Ultron in Seoul. 'I had to wear what I've come to call my 'man-canceling' suit ' which makes you look big everywhere you want to look small and small where you want to look big.'
The suit became kind of a joke, Ruffalo said. 'It isn't very flattering. Last time around, I said maybe we should have Marc Jacobs design [it].'
What makes the difference in Ultron is the state-of-the-art technology developed by Imaginarium Studios, run by Andy Serkis, who won kudos for his remarkable CGI-aided role as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings movies.
For Ultron, Imaginarium equipped Ruffalo with a traditional motion-capture suit ' and a mask to capture simultaneously his facial expressions point-by-point, so that the actor could give full life to the Hulk's physical performance.
'So you have this integration of the body, the face and all the physical attributes,' the actor says in the film's production notes. 'And it can get really nuanced and it is something that is as sacred and as worthy as anything we do on any set.'
Technology was one thing that helped Ruffalo ' twice-nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar ' give Banner and the Hulk more depth as characters in Ultron.
'It's the first time in a very long time that [Banner's] felt comfortable and a little bit safe, which could be problematic for him,' Ruffalo said of Ultron at a roundtable interview in Seoul. 'He can almost trick himself into thinking that he is having a normal life ' but then the Big Green Guy decides otherwise. He struggles with that, obviously.'
A normal life is what Ruffalo maintains for himself, despite fame.
The actor lives with his wife of almost 15 years, Sunrise Coigney, a few thousand kilometers from Hollywood in rural New York State ' something that insulates their children Bella Noche, Keen and Odette from show business.
Ruffalo says the kids have become immune to the Hulk, although they don't like watching Banner kiss superassassin Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson, on screen.
'They think I'm cool, and I have a great relationship with my kids, but they're like 'OK, it's time to come home now. We love the superhero movies, but we want you home.''
Sadly, Ruffalo adds, Johansson wasn't available on the day the kiss was filmed so he had to kiss a stand-in. 'That's one of those movie magic moments that I'll be regretting for the rest of my life,' he says.
After signing on for four more Hulk movies, Ruffalo is wary when talking about the Academy-Award winning film Birdman, where Michael Keaton plays a Hollywood actor struggling with serious acting on Broadway after building a career on superhero roles.
'When I watched the movie, I was cringing ' waiting for my name to be mentioned,' Ruffalo says, laughing. 'There is always some kind of genre movie that becomes 'the one' for a time. I hope this one lasts longer than some of the others. It's a long career.'
On the chance for a solo Hulk film ' maybe based on Greg Pak's Planet Hulk or World War Hulk comic books ' Ruffalo says he's willing, but not sure in which direction Marvel Productions will go.
'Maybe, one day, I'd love to see it happen,' Ruffalo says. 'We've talked about it. They've got a lot of work ahead of them still on other projects before they could talk about it.'
In the meantime, Ruffalo looks like he's having a good time. 'I'm pretty happy running around with my fellow superheroes,' he adds. 'It's working and that's a good thing.
'As an actor you don't have very much control ' you're sort of riding the wave of the culture,' he says. 'I like to ride a bunch of different waves. This [superhero stuff] doesn't define who I am.
'I love to act, so I keep going where my heart takes me. Sometimes, it's a blockbuster ' and sometimes it's [his upcoming children's film] Infinitely Polar Bear,' Ruffalo says. 'I've been doing this a long time ' I hope I'll be doing it a lot longer.'
