HULK Official Movie Souvenir Magazine Article
He made a big impression with forceful performances in the likes of Chopper and Black Hawk Down. Now Eric Bana is making the biggest impression of all as Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the raging behemoth known as the Hulk. And as Abbie Bernstein discovers, it ain't easy being green.
Australian-born actor Eric Bana had his own TV variety show in the mid-'90s and has since appeared in the he fact-based Black Hawk Down and the comedies The Castle and The Nugget. But he shot to international fame for his award-winning performance as real-life criminal Mark "Chopper" Read in the 2000 drama Chopper. Bana was widely acclaimed for his convincing depiction of a charismatic man capable of violent rage - qualities that make him an ideal choice to play Bruce Banner, a brilliant scientist whose anger literally transforms him into the Hulk.
Bana was familiar with the Hulk's '70s TV screen incarnation: "I wasn't a religious follower of comic book activity as a kid," he admits, "but I was a fanatical fan of the television show with Bill Bixby and Lour Ferrigno. So my memories of the Hulk were very vivid."
However, the actor set those memories aside when approaching the feature film version. "I knew that whatever [director Ang Lee] was going to add was going to be probably way beyond my own wildest imagination. Because I knew that Ang was going to be putting such a unique spin on it, I deliberately didn't engross myself in comic book-reading prior to [playing] the role."
About his character, Bana says: "He's a somewhat confused individual. Underneath, there's a dark past. He's kind of aware of it being there, he has a lot of nightmares and flashbacks, but they're very, very vague. Early on, we see he has odd reactions to different things, and his responses are heightened, based on the biological differences in him, so that starts to manifest itself very early [when he's] a baby. As the movie progresses, he gets closer and closer to discovering those dark secrets and repressed memories. It's actually quite a selfish story in a lot of ways, because it's about him getting to the bottom of his problems and looking for closure.
Bruce's chief ally is fellow scientist Betty Ross, played by Jennifer Connelly. "Jennifer comes onto the set and you just always get to the heart of it," Bana states. "Betty Ross is infatuated with the notion of trying to solve all the mysteries in Bruce's head. I think they have major feelings for each other and Bruce is attempting to block them out. He's afraid of opening up to feelings because of the reaction that it can cause. It think this drives her crazy, and she wants to get to the bottom of it, as much for herself as for him."
The answers may lie with Bruce's experimenter father, David Banner, played by Nick Nolte. The father/son relationship Bana believes, is bewildering to Bruce. "I think it's a bit of everything. When [David] comes to visit [Bruce] in the hospital he gets very close to me, I wanted to play with the idea that him being so close to me, that physical proximity, was triggering some memory. But there's no real attachment immediately. [Their relationship is] probably the most important thing in the film, because it's the stimulus for all those repressed memories, and it's also, in a classic sense, father vs. son."
Action opposite Nolte and Sam Elliott, who plays Betty's father, General Ross, was a career highlight for Bana. "This was very surreal for me because Nick and Sam are literally two of my all-time favorite actors. There is stuff that Nick is doing in this film that is probably among the best that he has ever done in this career, and to be opposite him at those moments is a blessing."
Working with Nolte, Bana feels improved his own performance: "It enables you to have the confidence to totally go where you want to go and know that you're not going to be taken out of that place by the person opposite you. In fact, when you're on the set with Nick, he has this energy that sucks you further and further in. Even though the tone of the scenes we had together was always difficult and deep, it was the most fun I had on the film."
Bana loves the filmmakers' explanation of why Bruce "Hulks out," turning green and huge. "The reason that the Hulk got bigger and bigger was due tot he level of emotional response to a given situation, as opposed to a physical response. Ang was playing with the idea [Betty] puts forth: what if there are limits to the physical world, but there are no limits to our emotional response to things? Potentially, the Hulk, even though he gets to 15 feet, could keep going and going and going, based on the level of emotional response to a given situation."
What exactly causes Bruce to Hulk out? "The key is anger, fear, rage," Bana explains, "but I liked the notion that all of it is involuntary. That way, I was able to play with the idea that it wasn't ever a conscious decision. 'I'm a little bit mad so now I'm just going to become the Hulk.' He's not jumping into a phone booth, he's not going into the Bat Cave. He's turning into this large green monster with very little control over himself. I would like to think when Bruce is Bruce, it's basically the Hulk using Bruce as a camouflage, and that when the Hulk is the Hulk, it's actually Bruce using the Hulk as camouflage. That was an idea that Ang and I wanted to play with."
One of the principal appeals of The Hulk for Bana is the way the film combines psychological drama with state-of-the-art CGI effects. "This is like climbing to the very top of the heap - obviously special because of the ILM [Industrial Light and Magic] and Dennis Muren and his [visual effects] team. It was like working on two different films at once. You come to work and one day you're doing this scene in which you feel like you're in the most dramatic film you could be in, and then you disappear for two days and you come back and go, 'What happened to this dark little drama film I was working on?" They're ripping down walls and there's some guy walking around with a stick with a head on top of it [indicating where the Hulk will be in the he scene for both the actors and the cameras], running down the corridor!' I've never seen people so eager at work as the people from ILM. They lap it up."
The Hulk was Bana's first experience working with major computer-generated effects: "I knew at some point [the visual effects team] were gonna take over the transformation process, but underneath that, I would have to perform. So, prior to those sequences, I would ask them "is there any way that I can help here later on, is there a position I can get into?' - getting their feedback on [the most useful] way of moving my body. It's a lot to try and store in your head, but it's fun at the same time. They're not very easy scenes to do, because you can't really fake any of that stuff."
Physical preparation for the role began well before filming started. "I got in touch with the stunt players very early," Bana relates. "[Stunt coordinator] Charlie Croughwell and Sonny Tipton were on the team from the word go. Initially, we had played wit the idea that I was going to do a lot more physically in terms of Hulk movement than I actually ended up doing, because the ILM process was so advanced by the time we got to that point. But we were prepared for anything. We trained extensively before coming to the States to start shooting, just playing with flexibility, playing with jumping. I worked on a trampoline, I did some yoga, I did all kinds of different things to prepare myself for whatever it was that Ang was gonna throw."
Thanks to CGI, Bana did not have to undergo extensive make-up. "I'm actually in love with ILM," he reveals, "because I never had to be painted green for this whole film. Myself and Dennis my make-up artist were really excited about the idea of playing with green paints and possible prosthetics, and I was fitted with all kinds of contacts, and I thought, 'My day's gonna start at 2am.'" But this didn't come to pass: "In the end they decided to go with the digital process, which is just awesome."
Playing Bruce Banner/the Hulk was nevertheless extremely physically demanding - so much so that Bana actually blacked out. "The shooting style of the film was such that you'd go into a scene knowing that you would have to do it many, many times, because of the amount of coverage Ang would get. You can't hold back, you can't go in thinking, 'Okay, I won't give everything here because I might have to do it 1500 times,' you just have to do it."
Director Lee is known for putting many layers, both visual and psychological into his work, something Bana admires: "You’re in the hands of a master and someone who puts everything where it is for a very good reason. I think the themes and ideas of this film are so large that it's not something that you watch once and get everything. I think it's gonna be one of those movies that you watch and you're completely blown away and you're gonna have to come back to it again, and maybe want to come back to it when you're at a different stage in your life, see how it affects you on a different pass."
Audiences may not be prepared for the intensity of The Hulk, Bana believes: "I'd sometimes jokingly say to Ang, 'You realize it's PG-13? Or is this gonna be the first PG-19 film out there?' Because the tone of the film is very heavy and dark, and like I say, it was like working on two different films. You come in and do these big scenes in terms of emotions and these big themes that Ang is playing with, within a summer blockbuster.
"That's what's so unique and why I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have played that role," he asserts, "because I couldn't have dreamed that it would have so many layers available to it. Serving a master such as Ang is a huge responsibility and to feel that he chose me to help him with that vision is an honor. It's been an almost life-changing experience. It's certainly something I'll never forget."