Mark Ruffalo portrayed Bruce Banner/Hulk in The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
He also portrayed Bruce Banner of Earth-16828 in Team Thor and voiced Bruce Banner/Hulk of Earth-51825 in the What If...? episode "What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?", Bruce Banner/Hulk of Earth-89521 in "What If... Zombies!?" and Bruce Banner/Hulk in "What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?".
Significant roles[]
- Terry Prescott in You Can Count on Me (2000)
- Zane Marinelli in The Beat (2000)
- Yates in The Last Castle (2001)
- Private Pappas in Windtalkers (2002)
- Ted Stewart in View from the Top (2003)
- Detective Malloy in In the Cut (2003)
- Jack Linden in We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004)
- Stan in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- Matt Flamhaff in 13 Going on 30 (2004)
- Fanning in Collateral (2004)
- David in Just Like Heaven (2005)
- Adam Stanton in All the King's Men (2006)
- Inspector David Toschi in Zodiac (2007)
- Dwight Arno in Reservation Road (2007)
- Paul Hatfield in The Kids Are All Right (2010)
- Chuck Aule in Shutter Island (2010)
- Brad Sullivan in Date Night (2010)
- John Zener in Second Coming (2010)
- Dylan Rhodes in Now You See Me (2013)
- Dave Schultz in Foxcatcher (2014)
- Michael Rezendes in Spotlight (2015)
- Dylan Rhodes in Now You See Me 2 (2016)
- Robert Bilott in Dark Waters (2019)
- Louis Reed in The Adam Project (2022)
Quotes[]
- "It's like Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, a new actor gets a crack at it every year. But really it's all heady stuff. It's exciting to be here. It's great to be a part of all this."
- "It was very exciting — and I realized I had some pretty big shoes to fill. Those were my heroes up there! I was a comic book fan growing up. I loved The Hulk and The Avengers — it’s just strange to be entering that world as an actor. I never would have imagined that before."
- “I had the same reaction my son had – ‘You, papa? The Hulk?’”
- “What I like about it is they really want my character to be the everyman, which means they want me to gain 10 more pounds [instead].”
- "I’m a friend of Ed’s, and yeah, that wasn’t a great way for all that to go down. But the way I see it is that Ed has bequeathed this part to me. I look at it as my generation’s Hamlet", "He’s a guy struggling with two sides of himself — the dark and the light — and everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control. I grew up on the Bill Bixby TV series, which I thought was a really nuanced and real human way to look at The Hulk. I like that the part has those qualities."
- "I probably wouldn't have done this movie in the past. But because of what Robert Downey Jr had done and where that genre has gone since then, I did it."
- "I have never really been one to go for the cash. If my dad knew how much money I had turned in my lifetime he would kick me in the ass", "going for more than a job."
- "I'm really excited. No one's ever played the Hulk exactly, they've always done CGI... They're going to do the Avatar stop-action, stop-motion capture. So I'll actually play the Hulk. That'll be fun."
- "I really love the first TV version of it, the Bill Bixby one... I'm gonna shoot for that a little bit. He was an everyman in it. He's always on the run and trying to find love. It's really a sympathetic character, before he turns into the Hulk and f*cks everything up."
- "I hope I don't bulge in anyone's face, that's all I have to say."
- "They set up several pictures over a couple of years and possibly there will be a Hulk movie. There'll probably be a couple more Avengers too, which would be fun."
- "The way I see it, Edward Norton has bequeathed this role to me. I reckon the part is my generation's Hamlet, and there's still some room for interpreting who The Hulk is. Growing up I'd rush home to watch my favorite show. You had the main character, played by Bill Bixby, and he had this calming quality to him. I watched it again recently, and it was so different from anything on TV at the time. You could really see the character struggling with the human aspect of what was happening."
- "Looking ahead you're sort of going from making a small independent film and you do a lot of those, to making a very big film in The Avengers and you're going to be playing Bruce Banner. I was just wondering (because we have seen so many portrayals of Bruce Banner) how yours is going to be different?"
- "Drawing on that a little bit, are you just trying to put all those guys out of your mind, Bill Bixby especially?"
- "Well, with Joss Whedon directing, you kind of get the impression that it might be a bit more tongue in cheek. Perhaps you're going to play it completely straight?"
- "It's cool, it's gonna be great. The script is a nice combination of funny and was very in Joss Whedon's wheelhouse. And I got to see the maquette of the Hulk yesterday in full scope and it's awesome. Just like me. We're going out of our way to... first of all, I'm the first actor to actually do it in motion capture as the Hulk. And so, all the features are mine, they're just really big."
- Equal parts Hulk and Bruce Banner", "introduced in a really great way, and after that we have all the great Hulk stuff"
- "They sort of set up several pictures at once, but a lot is riding on this first one."
- “There will probably be a couple more Avengers movies, which would be fun to do. I don’t know if they will ever do another Hulk. How old is The Hulk meant to be? Six years from now I will be in my 50s!”
- “I like where the genre has gone, especially with Robert Downey. There’s definitely a shift and when you look at people like Robert in Iron Man, he adds such humanity to it and I am interested in that."
- “I’d like a thriller like a Shining, or Rosemary’s Baby, which has all of the hallmarks of great acting and great character cinema, but also it delivers on the thrill and the excitement."
- “I see the comic book genre moving that way. I think it will be cool to try my hand at something like that eventually. They are giving movies to first-time directors who are making that kind of movie and I know I have something to offer. I think [it's gonna be] a lot of fun...we haven't seen all these guys together on the screen, I think it's gonna be pretty gutsy. And there's actually a lot of humor in it as well. And there's a lot of really good actors who are doing it. So hopefully it has a little bit of the spirit of what [Marvel] has been doing with Iron Man. And I have feeling people are really gonna have a good time," the actor continues,"it's the mother of all comic book movies. I've lost 15 pounds. I've been working a lot on the psychology of [Bruce Banner]. And hopefully I'll bring something different than what we've already seen"
- "We have to get the script. We’ve been working on the script, which has been fun. I’ve lost 15 pounds. They don’t want me all ripped up, but they want me to be lean and mean. It’s about trying to get the psychology of somebody who knows, at any moment, they could literally tear the roof off of wherever they are and trying to bring something real to that and totally fantastic. I’ve been working with Joss Whedon on the script, with the rest of the cast, and we start rehearsals soon. Hopefully, we’ll have the mother of all comic book movies for you soon"
- "I’m grateful that I get to do something like The Avengers," "I’m a lot happier when I’m more grateful than when I’m like ‘what the f**k man? I can make ten movies with their lunch budget, okay!’ There is not a lot of grace in that, and it just makes me miserable."
- "I don’t know how else to do it. I have to find those places where it intersects with real life, I think," "So working on Bruce Banner walking around and thinking ‘I could tear the roof off of this like that.’ That does something to you. I’m trying to bring those elements to whatever I do."
- "No one has asked me to shave my chest yet, thank God. They want this Hulk to be as close to me as possible. I'll be playing him in motion-capture, so this Hulk will just be a bigger avatar version of me. As they're modeling him, they're using many of my own features, down to my scars and wrinkles. He will have body hair, but I don't know to what extent."
- "It's like being back in the forest as a 7-year-old, living in my imagination and creating this other world," "It's the absolute perfect marriage," "I walk in front of a monitor, and there I am as the Hulk," "I raise my right arm, he raises it, but he raises it as a 250-pound right arm, with all that weight and mass."
- "No, no, no," "Look, I'm eating guacamole and ****ing potato chips, man, and having drinks with you." The bar is slowly filling, and as someone slides a buck into the jukebox to hear "American Pie," "You think Tom Cruise does this?"
- "I play Bruce Banner. We're going back to the original. I will be the first actor to actually do the motion capture for the Hulk, and play the Hulk. It'll be like Avatar."
- "They'll digitally overlay the Hulk body on my masculine physique. They won't have to do much CGI though, thank God."
- "He's like the teammate none of them are sure they want on their team. He's a loose cannon. It's like, 'Just throw a grenade in the middle of the group and let's hope it turns out well!"
- "I’m really excited, I loved working with Robert Downey [Jr.] and I loved kind of what they’ve done with the genre with Iron Man and Batman.”
- "I just think it’s a very cool marriage of different talents."
- "I think [he] is really going to do something very, very cool with this."
- "We’ve been working on the script for months now,” the actor said. "I’ve been very active in that process."
- "It really is the Bruce Banner that I want to play,” he added. “I think it will be an interesting twist on him. I don’t want to go too deep into that. I’m really looking forward to it. I hope it delivers on all fronts."
- "I actually start the day Sympathy For Delicious opens."
- "I’ve been working with [director/co-writer] Joss Whedon quite a bit on developing it, my portion of it. I’ll be working with Robert Downey, and I’m already doing the motion capture stuff. I’m excited."
- "I’m the first actor to do both. It’s really cool. I was surprised by how well my theater training played into the motion capture thing, because it’s all your imagination. When he moves across the ground, I want him using all fours, using his arms as much as his legs to move from here to there. I’d like to capture some of the primitive aspect of him."
- "Not so much hunched, but the low center of gravity, and the flailing of the arms sometimes."
- "He looks just like me, but bloated and green. And big! He looks like me 40 pounds ago."
- "It’s not a bad deal! The more of a difference there is between Mark and the Hulk, the happier everyone seems to be. I was like, ‘So do you want me to get ripped up?’ And they went, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no! Nice and trim. We want you nice and trim.’ They said, ‘We want you to look good with your shirt off, but we don’t want you strapped.’ I can live with that. And so can my wife."
- "I was there for two hours and flew to LA back to NY. Talk about a carbon footprint," "I’m not used to that sort of thing. I run a small operation. I’m not used to getting a part and having it subjected to that scrutiny and debate. I like to come in the back door and surprise people. There’s so much onus on it. I trust Joss [Whedon]. We talked a lot and to Robert [Downey. Jr.] I trust that we are going to make it good. Robert sets the tone."
- "You have all these disparate egos, superheroes in this and that, and they refuse to give up some of their positions in order to make a more perfect union and to join the team. That’s really what the whole movie is about: subjugating your own best interest momentarily to further that of the whole."
- "This Hulk is mercurial. He's very unpredictable; he's nuanced. There's a sense of humor there; there's an ability to communicate. But he's bristly and he's incredibly dangerous, like a wild animal. His rage feels real; his reactions to things feel human."
- " The Avengers isn’t the type film that I’ve done in the past or that I am usually invited to do. I was a little nervous about it because when Joss and I first met about the role there wasn’t a script. I thought a lot about Iron Man. I thought about what Robert Downey Jr. did with that part—he is one of my hero actors. I really loved what Robert did; he reinvented the genre. It made me feel like I could fit into that world with whatever it is I do. I had one meeting with Joss, who I liked instantly, so between him and Robert I was in. What appealed to both Joss and I about the character is that he would have a common man sort of feel to him and possess this world-weary charm. We also agreed he should have a sense of humor about his situation. Based on the last incarnation of The Incredible Hulk, there was the promise that Banner may actually have a little control over the Behemoth. We wanted him to be fun and interesting as Banner and awesome as Hulk."
- "I am in a scruffy linen suit that was bought directly out of a thrift store and I am looking around the room at these impeccable human specimens feeling like a tool and thinking, ‘What am I doing here?' I felt a strange jealousy as I was looking at their cool outfits and strapping bodies. I was purposely told not to put on muscle for the role, so I was the pipsqueak. I longed to have my cool outfit and be part of the team and that is exactly how Bruce Banner is feeling as well. I was nervous because I had a lot of long scientific dialogue. I thought I knew the scene pretty well, but standing next to Sam Jackson and all of the other actors in the cast for the first time, I just kind of fell apart for the first few takes. Thank goodness Sam made a good joke about it, which put me at ease and I was fine after that."
- "In a lot of the other versions of the character, The Hulk grew in size drastically, but in The Avengers he is always going to be about eight and a half feet tall. He gets stronger as he gets angrier, but he doesn’t really grow much taller. When I found out there was a whole new arena of technology that would allow an actor to play what has always been a CGI character, I thought it could be something cool to try my hand at. It’s a game changer for The Hulk because it’s hard to capture real anger in a CGI character. Anger is something that’s deep and primordial. There are so many subtleties and variations to it, so this idea of bringing a darker, more humanistic Hulk was really exciting and compelling."
- "There are many different steps in creating this version of The Hulk. It was interesting to me how relatable it is to theater, which is the oldest form of acting. As a theater actor you walk onto a black box and there is nothing to live off of, so you really have to rely on your imagination and you have to put things out there that aren’t there. Theater was my training as an actor and when they put me in this tiny little pod with thousands of cameras and lights all around and I could only move my head, I was able to use my imagination to put myself in the circumstance of fighting Thor or any other being."
- "Every movement you make you see The Hulk making the same movement in the monitor, so the image starts to tell you how the character stands and behaves. You also see that the body can only move certain ways, so you’re creating the character based on the physical presence that’s in front of you, which was really exciting and challenging. I spent several days there and we went through fights, like Hulk against Thor, and I would simulate the fight with one of ILM’s animators for three hours. They took all the information of our movements, put it into a computer and that becomes the basis for The Hulk. It’s very complex, methodical, and in a lot of ways, a really nascent technology. It’s a creature, but it also feels human and I’m thrilled by it. My experience in a lot of these types of films is that you feel like you’re watching two movies—the CGI movie and the human portion. But now we’re free as actors through this technology and audiences can stay connected and track the character for the entire film."
- "I think Banner's aging and living with this thing since -- now it's been two years since his last "one." We're kind of going for this world weariness of accepting -- trying to get to the point where he can live with it, and maybe master it. Come to peace with it. And so there's this kind of nice ironic wryness to Banner. He's not sulking and miserable, you know. I think that's sort of a throwback -- we had talked about it being a throwback to Bill Bixby, which was the Banner that I grew up on basically. He had kind of a charm about him, and this world weariness. He was on the run, but he was still able to flirt sometimes and smile sometimes, and occasionally he'd crack a joke."
- "He Does. As of this moment, I am. But you never know what they're going to do. They might watch it and go, "Oh my god!" Yeah, he's a smart Hulk. He hasn't graduated to that yet, but hopefully he might be on the way to that. I don't know where it's gonna go after this, but there's definitely -- I feel like we're trying to open the door to integration of the two. I liken it [to] the guy who tried to break a bucking Bronco. He has some tiny little semblance of control of it, but then again it's completely out of control. That's what the last one left off, I felt like."
- "Why not! It was the one character -- you know, I was a comic book fan when I was a kid and I always loved the Hulk. When The Incredible Hulk, that show, came on, I would not miss that. And so if I was going to find myself in that world, this would be the guy that I would be most interested in doing. To make a very short answer long: Yeah, I'd love to have him do his own movie."
- "We're shooting a scene tonight. I'm not sure exactly where it's gonna go. All I know is that someone came in with the costume and said, 'Here's some wardrobe. We don't know where you're going to be or what you're doing.'"
- "The producers have sort of asked me about it [another Hulk solo movie] in some drunken nights in our European press tour, where I would like to see a new movie go."
- "A lot of folks have been asking about the next Hulk. The next time you see my Hulk it will be in the Avengers 2. No plans for stand alone."
- "I am not giving up on another stand alone HULK. But it’s not in the works right now. One never knows what the future will bring."
- "Just to be totally clear. I did not say there was not going to ever be a stand alone Hulk film. I said there wasn’t one in the works now."
- "It was literally, they were about to wrap the movie and I saw Robert at the Academy Awards and he had this idea. Marvel had had an idea but then they scraped it and I thought it wasn’t going to happen. Then I saw Robert and he said, 'What do you think about coming and doing a day?' I said, 'Are you kidding me? Bang, lets do it!' We sort of spitballed that scene, then I came in and we shot for a couple of hours and laughed. I haven’t seen it yet but people seem to like it."
- "[if he'll be present in Avengers 2] I don’t know, maybe, maybe not...They haven’t talked about it with me... I think so. I'd be really sad if they did [recast me]. I can't imagine that. That would be bad. "That would not be good," as Joss Whedon would say. I don't foresee not coming back as The Hulk.""
- "[if other actors will or won't come back for Avengers 2] I haven't caught wind of any of that. I was surprised to hear it, because I don't even think anyone's really started negotiating yet. As far as I know everyone is back. But sometimes actors are the last people to know what's going on."
- "As artists we have an ability to reach a lot of people in a deep way, and we have a responsibility. What we have to do as storytellers is to take science and make it relatable. I think we have to tell the story of the positive & what we're going to try to do. Give them alternatives but don't make it a polemic. I think that's the way to go, and it's a trend that'll start to develop: as a culture, when we latch onto a fad, we're actually working something out in the creative subconscious. The fact that all these doomsday and end-of-times movies are coming out is because we're actually working that out in the culture. I'm in The Avengers, but if you took my screentime it would come to about ten minutes, along with the 12 other people I'm sharing the screen with, so my input's kind of limited on that. But if we get to a standalone Hulk movie, I'll have a much better chance to do that. I'm just learning now how to find my voice and bring it into the studio world."
- "I would say that it's better, it's cooler, it's more awesomer. It's a little bit darker, but also really has Joss Whedon's incredibly, witty and sly sense of humor. Bruce Banner gets to do such great stuff!"
- "My role's even bigger than last time, and it's more complex and it has more layers and a bit more arc. Not only that, but it seems that the motion capture process is becoming a whole lot more agreeable second time around. I'm really tripping on the technology of this motion-capture stuff… now I just completely embrace it and see it as this other exciting place we can go as performers."
- "I know the team, I have come to really enjoy these people and know them, and I'm so happy to see them have so much success. And I really love Joss Whedon. I really love working with him. He always gives me something that's a surprise to me. And so, yeah, it's been really nice coming back. It's also nerve-wracking because it did so well and people expect so much. You're balancing a lot in it, there's a lot of characters and a lot of story, and you're trying to figure out your work inside of it."
- "It has been great, I love him [Andy Serkis]. We met on 13 Going on 30, and he's created a place that's so actor-friendly and puts the actor front and center of that technology, and has demystified it, and made it a comfortable place - although we may never get comfortable in those leotards. The technology is actually at a place where it's almost in real time for the most part so it's a lot like digital puppetry."
- "I'm the green sheep of the Marvel family. But I think they're starting to catch on - I think all of us are starting to catch on- that you can't hurt a movie by doing that stuff. You really can't. It just makes people buy into it more. It makes them part of it, they're invested in it. It's not that precious for God's sake."
- "Let me put it to you this way: there is a Hulk surprise that is equally delightful as when he smashed the bejesus out of Loki."
- "Well a typical day always begins in the make up chair. Where fortification's taken which constitutes a little nap and face message. Afterwards we are a coaxed into our costumes and out of our trailers, which is usually a hardship for the coaxer. Then we assemble on set and do a rehearsal which at some point or another ends up in Thor getting completely fed up with us mortals. Then we repeat that many times over the course of the day interspersed with camera moves, pee breaks, coffee, lunch, and make up."
- "There's lots of "Science Bros." stuff. There's some cool Science Bros stuff... very cool stuff. I think they are, for the first time, entertaining the idea of it. When we did The Avengers it was basically 'No!', and now there is some consideration for it. But there's still nothing definitive, not even a skeletal version of what it would be. I look forward to going down that road, if we could crack that nut."
- "Banner and Hulk have kind of come to a detente [laughs]. We left this last one with this idea that I’m always angry and therefore I have some control over it, but like anger, when you think you have control over it, you absolutely don’t. So there’s still a wrangling going on and there’s a confrontation brewing between the Hulk consciousness and the Banner consciousness that I think we’re starting to head into right now."
- "The Vision is the Vision. He is so dope, and he’s my baby. [Laughs] Yeah, he’s pretty incredible. The idea of him and where he comes from. He’s very independent. It’s a really great character. Yeah, people are going to love the Vision…and Ultron is amazing. He’s amazing. It’s really good."
- "All I know is that I’m happy that I walk in and I leave the trailer and I can go back an hour later and Paul Bettany’s still in makeup. I’m 46 years old so that makes me feel good…sorry Paul, but you should see him. He’s a specimen when he walks onto that thing. He’s like, the perfect man. He’s the Vision."
- "We have a lot of scenes together as a group. I don’t really – I have a couple one on one things with him, but I love him. He’s great, and he’s going to be…it’s like King Lear. It’s great."
- "It’s not…She’s able to bring out…[pauses] the worst in us. There are people in our lives who can do that, and somehow when you’re an actor you tend to gravitate towards those people, but she’s that bad – it’s like Sid and Nancy. She’s everyone’s Nancy."
- "It’s a little bit like Cool Hand Luke that way. “Do you think you could beat me? I’ll beat the crap out of you. Then I beat the crap out of him. It’s kind of like that, but not totally like that. It has a surprise to it, a little twist to it as well."
- "We’re sort of still working it [Hulk talking] out. He will, we’re just trying to figure out – there’s a couple different places to do it, but he’s not going to have a soliloquy, not yet anyway. We’re working for that. Joss has a couple ideas where to put that."
- "Banner's been living in Stark Tower. They've been working side by side and Bruce has his own lab now. He's doing work that augments Tony's own, which could lead to an experiment going wrong..."
- "His relationship with Natasha deepens. There's something similar about the two of them. I see them as lost souls. They're kindred in some ways."
- "Oh yeah I’ll – I’ll play, I’ll play along. Yeah, yeah. There’s a really important relationship between [laughs]…. Um I was just happy that I was in the movie at all. And any scenes that I got to be with her were a big bonus."
- "Uh, we don’t have a relationship – What kind of relationship?" (about deepened relationship with Natasha Romanoff)
- "In their relationship, she protects him. She kind of becomes his bodyguard, in a weird way. And he goes with it. I mean, Bruce, he’s a pacifist, man."
- "He does feel more comfortable with himself. His confidence is getting better. But, you know, that gets shaken. His ability to handle the Hulk really gets thrown into question in this film. The hard part is coming back. Hulk doesn't want to cede his place. It's much harder to come back from being Hulk than it is to get into him."
- "I think there's a whole other chapter we haven't seen yet where you find the other nuances within him. The battle of identity going on between him and Banner is all about establishing dominance. The only thing that Hulk is really afraid of is Banner. That's an interesting dynamic."
- "What Joss is going after is really big. But there's still lots of laughs. There's some goofy stuff. I mean, it's Whedon!"
- "There’s a battle going on between these two opposing egos that live inside him. He’s definitely worried that the day is going to come when the Hulk gets the best of him, and maybe won’t release him, maybe won’t give him back. The Hulk knows this too. There’s a moment in here where he, begrudgingly, decides to go back to Banner. Who knows where these things will go, but as Bruce is able to impress his will on the Hulk, going into The Hulk and being inside the Hulk when he’s raging, The Hulk’s will is also growing and able to impress upon Bruce. That makes for some wild things. We’re laying the groundwork for that here. It’ll be interesting to see if that ends up being what would be the next Hulk movie."
- "I can make The Hulk as real as any other character I’ve ever played and in ways more nuanced, more interesting. It’s boundless."
- "I think there's a lot of places to go with him. Well he's going to space. Yeah, I mean there's some talk of maybe Planet Hulk. I'd be completely interested in entertaining that."
- "I think it's four now. But that could always go further... I could show up in another character's movie. I could do Avengers 3 and 4, I could do a Hulk standalone - like any combination of those things. Up to four or five."
- "I don't know that I'm in it yet, but sometimes these things happen at the last minute in this world. I really don't know where I fit in from here on out, and I'm not sure they do. In terms of a stand-alone Hulk movie, Marvel doesn't really have the rights to that yet; that's still Universal's property. So there's that issue."
- "I think it's sad. Because I know how Joss feels about women, and I know that he's made it a point to create strong female characters. I think part of the problem is that people are frustrated that they want to see more women, doing more things, in superhero movies, and because we don't have as many women as we should yet, they're very, very sensitive to every single storyline that comes up right now. But I think what's beautiful about what Joss did with Black Widow - I don't think he makes her any weaker, he just brings this idea of love to a superhero, and I think that's beautiful. If anything, Black Widow is much stronger than Banner. She protects him. She does her job, and basically they begin to have a relationship as friends, and I think it's a misplaced anger. I think that what people might really be upset about is the fact that we need more superhuman women. The guys can do anything, they can have love affairs, they can be weak or strong and nobody raises an eyebrow. But when we do that with a woman, because there are so few storylines for women, we become hyper-critical of every single move that we make because there's not much else to compare it to. So I know Joss really well. I know what his values are. And I think it's sad, because in a lot of ways, there haven't been as many champions in this universe as Joss is and will continue to be. And I know it hurts him. I know it's heavy on him. And the guy's one of the sweetest, best guys, and I know him - as far as any man can be a champion for women, he is that. So it's been a little disheartening. But I also see how much people love that aspect of it. There's an equal amount of people who find the love interest between Banner and Black Widow to be a big standout. And it's very satisfying to people. So it's a movie. People are going to have their opinions. And that's actually a great thing. The fact that this is a debate that's coming out of this movie is probably a positive thing. I just don't think that people should get personal with Joss, because he really is - of anyone - an advocate for women. He's a deeply committed feminist."
- "I don’t know! I heard a rumor about that the other day. I haven’t seen a script, nobody’s told me, and I don’t have dates. But I can only hope so! I was talking to Robert Downey the other day, and he said, ‘Ruffalo! I heard you’re coming out here,’ and I said, ‘OK! I’ll be there’"
- "I like the challenge of it. I like the cultural significance of it, as an art project. It’s crossing into all kinds of cultures, and belief systems, and ideologies. It’s hitting a lot of boxes, and really specialized boxes, too. And ultimately, the messaging of it is pretty good! It has a decency about it. I always feel like this is our modern mythology, in a way. We’ve been doing this since the time we could draw on cave walls. This is our version of it now, but we’re still working out the same stuff—violence, brotherhood, and more."
- "I play Dr. Bruce Banner, and occasionally I turn into a big green, mean monster...(laughs)... I am excited to keep coming back to this role. I see a lot of space for it to grow."
- "I feel like there’s a lot of cool stuff to explore still, especially the relationship between Banner and Hulk. Hopefully, we’ll see the two of them in a scene together. That would be cool!"
- "I don’t want to overstay my welcome and I hope I never do, If I do, I’ll be the first one to bow out."
- "I don’t really know that much about it, but I think it’s going to be a buddy picture with Thor and Bruce Banner. I think they’ll probably fight. There’s no doubt, everyone wants us to fight at one point.”
- "Actually, it feels even further away. It's not Marvel's property, it's Universal's property. I don't know. It seems really problematic. I've been around long enough to be OK with it. There's only so much that's in my power and I'm not going to agonize over what is not in my power. I definitely try to limit that to my kids and the things that really matter to me. I'd love to do it, it'd be really fun. There's a lot still to do with the character. I always try to think about different places we could go with him."
- "When you get off of the planet Earth, you can start playing with that stuff a little bit. I'm angling for it. I don't know if it'll happen now, but at some point, I'd like to see it happen. When I was doing Age of Ultron — doing the Scarlet Witch acid trip scenes — it really took me a long time to figure out what the Hulk would be afraid of. And then I realized, it was Banner. That relationship is what we're all so into, but we've never seen them in the same scene together — you're either one or the other, or somewhere in between. But I always imagined that that could be pretty exciting if we could pull it off. In the Marvel Universe, there is some precedence for it. I remember as a kid, seeing a few of the comics that'd have this multidimensional thing, so there's a lot of ways to do it ... if we could find the right context to use it."
- "I don't know what the story is yet, but it'll be Loki and Thor, and then I'll be in there here and there. But I don't know any of the particulars quite yet. I've talked to Taika a little bit and I like where it's headed. ...Chris and I have a really good time together, we goof off and play around when Tom Hiddleston is around. So it'll be a lot of funny back-and-forth, especially with Taika, he does that really well. It'll have that kind of antagonistic Odd Couple-thing going on."
- "I think they’ve been working on it. Marvel and Universal famously don’t get along very well, and so that’s working against us, definitely. But I know for a fact that everyone is holding out hope that one day we can do it. But the nature of the relationship right now, it’s a little prohibitive. And I hope that that changes, that changes with regimes, it changes over the course of time. But right now it doesn’t look particularly promising. Yeah, I think ultimately that’s what they’re after, it working out for both sides. But like I said, Marvel and Universal are just not having a good time together right now."
- "They’re still writing the script. That’ll start shooting this summer. In June. There’s still a lot of work to do on that."
- "He's on the run. I think that we carry that through. It's not just a matter of taking himself to some remote place and hiding. Now he's removing himself from humanity altogether. I'm not sure where we're going to head with that, but I'm sure that's probably still very much alive within him."
- "It's very subtle, but the Banner/Hulk consciousness is beginning to meld a little bit. Who decided to leave? Was it Banner or Hulk? It's not really in the mythology of Hulk up until that moment to be that conscious and pro-active. It's interesting, right?"
- "I think it's really exciting where we could go with it. Now I feel like we're kind of in No Man's Land. I mean, the comic books have kind of broached the subject, but we're moving away from the traditional Hulk/Banner relationship. We're starting to mess with it a little bit. Now we're going to see how far we can push the limits of it before people get sick of it!"
- "I'm so thrilled! I saw her at the Governors’ banquet here and heard that maybe she was circling, they were talking to her about the part, so I ran up to her and I was like, ‘Please, please, please make this work!' She’s just one of the best, and to have her play a baddie is going to be really exciting."
- "There’s a little bit of Midnight Run, with Grodin and De Niro. I feel like that’s kind of where we’re heading with this relationship between Thor and Banner. It is a universal road movie – that’s where we’re heading. It’s not where you'd think it will be, so it’s not your classic road movie but it has that structure, I think."
- "I love Chris, and it’s not an accident that we’ve been put together because we have a good time together and we goof off. The fact that we’re moving towards the smart-comedic bent plays into our relationship."
- "I’d love to do a Hulk movie, but that’s beyond my control. It’s controlled by Universal. Marvel doesn’t even hold the rights to it. So, it’s not on the horizon. And I don’t know if it will be. But we have worked a really interesting arc into Thor 3, Avengers 3 and 4 for Banner that I think will – when it’s all added up – will feel like a Hulk movie, a standalone movie."
- "Taika Waititi’s coming in and I love him. That’s a surprise and it fits part of this Marvel doing the unexpected, casting the unexpected, and now bringing in the unexpected for writer and director. I’m really interested in where that’s going. They’re writing the script now. I am thinking about it, I’m doing script meetings and stuff so we’re starting to prep it."
- "Yeah, he basically told me it was his last one and I was like ‘goddamn it, you dragged me in to this world and now you’re abandoning me here!’ But they’re doing fine. Joss’ll do fine. I just miss him, and I will miss him. He cracked this character, he obviously cracked the Avengers which was nearly impossible. It was a miracle and he did it so beautifully."
- "I think the Russo brothers are great and I think they’re well positioned to take it on, and I’m happy to be doing it with them, but I’m friends with Joss. He had a hard time making the first one and he had a hard time making this one. I think it’s partially the nature of that beast."
- "It's an intergalactic buddy road movie with Banner and Thor. I think it will be smashing. You'll see a lot more Hulk. The Hulk gets Hulk-ier. The Hulk Hulks out. Hulk-ier and bigger."
- "She plays the worst of the worst. So evil. She is going to kill us. It's such a great part she gets to play."
- "I haven't started filming, but I've been prepping for it and I'm really excited about it. I think we're going to do some really cool stuff. We're going to see some new stuff with the Hulk. We're going to see some new stuff with Banner. We're definitely going to see some new stuff for poor old Thor."
- "He's amazing. It's got a lot of heart and a lot of fun in it, so I'm excited to get started on that."
- "I'm shooting a scene where I'm playing Hulk today with Chris Hemsworth, and it's a moment where he's talking to Valkyrie asking her to join him."
- "He’s much more of a character than the green rage machine you’ve seen in the Avengers movies. He’s got a swagger. He’s like a god."
Trivia[]
- He shares the same birthday date, November 22, with Scarlett Johansson.