Back in October 2001, Universal Pictures announced that Eric Bana would play
the lead role as Dr. Bruce Banner in "The Hulk." The response from
fans was a collective, "Who?"Since then the Australian comedian turned actor has been seen in "Black
Hawk Down" and the Oz production that made him famous, "Chopper."
On Friday Bana's Hulks-out on screen but will his career Hulk-out as well? Bana recently left the set of the currently-filming "Troy" (with
Brad Pitt starring and Wolfgang Petersen directing) to sit down with the press
to talk about "The Hulk." At the roundtable interview, members of the
press took turns asking questions about the development of the film.
Comics2Film/CBR News is pleased to present this edited transcript of that
interview.
Q: How has the fighting been going with co-star Brad Pitt?
Eric Bana (EB): We don't fight until we get to Mexico so we're still getting
along. I haven't disfigured Brad Pitt just yet.
Q: So are you in Malta?
EB: We're in Malta at the moment, yeah.
Q: So are you planning on disfiguring him to the point where Jennifer Aniston
comes after you?
EB: No. No, I'm sure I'll be chased down from numerous different sources if
that were to happen. No, I'm having a really wonderful time.
Q: Are you Hector?
EB: Yes I am.
Q: Were you thrilled when you got that?
EB: Oh yeah. It's quite the role of a lifetime, literally.
Q: Did it make you want to go to the gym?
EB: There's kind of no choice.
Q: It's Hector! He's the ultimate warrior.
EB: Exactly. Yeah, no, there're some very physical elements to it, obviously.
Q: Brad looks a buffed up too.
EB: Yeah, he's been working pretty hard too.
Q: With "Hulk" we've been hearing so much about Ang Lee wanting to
have the expressiveness in the Hulk. How was it to have a role where you're
going to be up upstaged by your CGI counterpart?
EB: I was fine. It's kind of nice. You're playing the lead but at the same
time you're going to shoulder a lot the responsibility with other sources. So,
no I was more than fine with that.
Q: Did they tell all along how it was going to look? Did you have a lot of
input?
EB: I was privy to it but no, I can't claim any credit for it. I mean, I
first met with Ang here on the lot. In his office he had a little stature that
he was working on, developing the look of the Hulk but no I really can't lay any
claim to any credit to how amazing the special effects are.
Q: Was all that repressed anger pretty hard to act on the screen?
EB: Yeah, look; I think you gotta expect that. I think there's so much there
that has to be played for the character to work. I never really expected it to
be easy. That was the big attraction for me, to the part, I knew was gonna be a
really chunky character role. That's why I wanted to do it.
So that didn't surprise me but you're right. In the end it's gonna be
demanding mentally and physically and emotionally, but that's exactly why I
wanted to do it.
Q: What kind of pressure did you feel, playing such an iconic role?
EB: I don't really take on too much of that pressure. There's a
responsibility of playing such a complex character convincingly was the pressure
for me, upon myself. External pressures of whatever was going on outside this
building, honestly I wasn't really privy to any of it and was very well
sheltered from that.
I don't mind pressure anyway. It's a healthy thing.
Q: Can you give us your vital stats?
EB: I'm just a little bit over six-two. Around two hundred pounds. Brown
hair. Brown eyes. Likes the outdoors.
Q: Is it easy to ditch the Australian accent?
EB: It's CGI in the film.
Yeah, in some ways it is. Luckily for me I've a long sketch comedy background
back in Australia, so I'm kind of used to it in some respects, but I think if
you're gonna come and take jobs it's gotta be perfect.
So yeah, I did. I had a wonderful woman by the name of Susan who helped me a
lot on this shoot.
Q: And where are you from? Where did you grow up?
EB: I'm from Melbourne in Australia.
Q: Did your family think you were going to become an actor in America?
EB: To be honest, I don't know what they thought. They encouraged me to be,
because since I was a little kid I'd always pretty much done nothing but that: impersonating
family and friends and stuff and coming up with characters and playing around
like that.
So then when I verbalized the desire to do this as a job, they weren't at all
surprised and were very supportive, which was nice. So, it was kind of
always an obvious thing to me. It was almost like I didn't really have much
choice, because it was kind of the only thing that I felt like I could really
do, you know?
Q: Did you get in trouble as a kid doing these things?
EB: It actually got me a lot of currency. It actually got me out of a lot of
trouble.
I used to do it a lot at school and teachers would kind of pull me off to the
side and say, "OK, you do a good Mr. Larkin. Give it to me."
[I'd say,] "No, no no. No way. I'll get expelled."
"No, no, no. I promise not to tell anybody."
So I'd do it and then four hours later another teacher would call me in,
"Do the science teacher. Now."
So actually it was quite helpful.
Q: How old are you now?
EB: I'm 34.
Q: What's your best mimic?
EB: There was a lot of famous people that I could do back on the sketch
comedy show but I was probably better known for developing my own characters
back home. To me that was to me what was really fun. It's fun mimicking people,
but it's also frustrating when your best mimics are people that no one knows.
That's the beauty of sketch comedy is you get to introduce them to the
audience and have them get used to it and then they become better known then the
famous impressions you do. You know?
Q: Did you do all that in Melbourne or did you go to Sydney?
EB: That job was out of Melbourne.
Q: How did you get noticed over here? Was it "Chopper?"
EB: Yeah, I guess it was. That film really traveled. It was great for me. It
did all the film festival circuit and it was almost like every great director
got to see it and a lot of interest stemmed from that.
I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to show what I could do in that
role.
Q: Is it ironic that you haven't done any comedy?
EB: Yeah, I guess it is. It's perfect.
Here people go, "Comedian? What are you talking about?"
And back home they go, "What do you think you're doing, doing all this
leading man stuff?"
So, yeah. It's perfect. It's great.
Q: What did you like about the Banner character?
EB: I guess on a self-indulgent level, as an actor, I liked it because there
was always so much to play. I knew there wasn't going to be one moment where I
could kind of walk through a scene. There was always a lot of work that had to
be done. That was something I really liked.
I loved the fact that he was...he's on a journey and he has to discover
things about himself, which we all are forced to do at different points in our
lives. But we don't really have to, if you know what I mean. There might be
something that we're kind of in touch with in ourselves that we kind of explore
and develop. Some people might go to therapy or whatever.
But Bruce has absolutely no choice. It's sort of forced upon him. You see him
fighting it. That's the whole dynamic in the relationship between him and Betty
Ross. He's kind of fighting and fighting her insistence on him getting in touch
with his past. But he's kind of quite reluctant.
That I really enjoyed because, as an actor, that's such a meaty theme to have
to deal with and try and pull off. There was more than enough there to do.
Q: How did you get the audition with Ang?
EB: Photos. Incriminating photos. Everyone: the studio people, Ang...
I think it was a combination of Ang and James Schamus had seen my prior work.
I flew to New York and met with them and had a long conversation about a billion
different things. Then I went back to Australia and it was months before I got a
phone call saying there was a good chance that I was one of the front runners,
and I was kind of in shock. I assumed they'd cast the role.
A week later I got a call saying, "They want you to play the part."
So it was pretty amazing.
Q: Are tied to the sequel?
EB: I guess so, yeah.
Q: Is that something that you look forward to doing?
EB: I'm being completely honest, which might sound a bit silly, but I really
haven't thought about it because I'd never be so presumptuous prior to the film
even being released as to having sat down and seriously though about a sequel.
So, yeah. I haven't really given it a whole lot of thought, especially in the
middle of "The Iliad."
Q: How did you get that part?
EB: Similarly Wolfgang [Petersen] had seen my work and was...
Q: Do you mean specifically "Chopper" or "Black Hawk
Down," because you really didn't do that much in "Black Hawk
Down."
EB: Oh, thank you very much.
[Laughing]
Charming.
You mean it was an ensemble piece, is that what you're trying to say?
Q: Yes. Absolutely. So tell us how you got the part in "Troy."
EB: A similar process. Wolfgang had seen "Chopper" and had seen
"Black Hawk Down" and we got together and had a long discussion and I
expressed which character I was interested in and why and my thoughts and
visions for that character. Then he wanted me to play the role.
Q: So you talked about Achilles and Hector?
EB: No I was specifically interested in Hector for a million reasons.
I just think he's an incredibly noble character. He's one of these truly
classic...I mean that is a truly opportunity of a lifetime and we're so lucky
that that film hasn't been made thus far.
Q: What is the set like?
EB: It's incredible.
Q: The first day you walked onto it, what did you think?
EB: Actually we started out in studio in London. Even the interior sets were
just [heavy sigh].
The first day I just rang my wife and said, "Tomorrow you've gotta come
in. You're coming in. You're coming here and you've gotta stay."
It's really amazing.
Q: When preparing for "Hulk" did you read the comics or other
material?
EB: I try and read a wide variety. I try not to be too specific in my source
material. Quite obviously you start off with the obvious stuff. I actually like
to work in a very unorthodox fashion when I'm preparing for roles. So even with
"Black Hawk Down" in that role that you mentioned, which I didn't do
much other than....
Q: ...saving peoples lives...
...Yes, thank you.
You really do the stuff that's obvious that's going to inform you about
that world, and then otherwise I find the most interesting stuff in terms of
developing that character has absolutely nothing to do with that genre. It's
about exploring big, mythical stuff.
So a bit of everything really. I mean I obviously watched the TV show and
then I went and researched the comic stuff but you get to a point where it kind
of informs you of the genre but doesn't really help you completely to form the
character.
I like to construct the character from scratch and not inherit
anything. So even like with Hector it's like, yes, he's in "The
Iliad" but "The Iliad" doesn't really tell you a whole lot about
that character.
Q: But what are your general reading habits?
EB: I like reading biographies. I'm reading one on Churchill at the moment,
which is just fascinating.
My wife's a big reader as well, so there's always a lot books around. I'm a
bit of a magazine junky too I have to say.
Q: What was your favorite book as a kid?
EB: I think "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."
I also loved encyclopedias as a kid, the idea of being able to pick a
subject and pull it out and read about the solar system. Put that away and read
about lions.
Q: Do you have kids of your own?
EB: Yes, I've got two.
Q: How old are they?
EB: Thirty-one and eighteen. I'm joking.
One and almost four. A one-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy.
Q: You wife went into labor during the production. Can you tell us how you
dealt with that?
EB: We were very fortunate. The production was very fortunate. They had
standby scenes ready to go because she ended up being over due. I think the last
scene I shot before Sophia was born I was actually on set...shooting a scene
with Nick Nolte. I think that was the last thing I did and, fortunately, it was
the weekend and then I had Monday off and Sophia was born in that period.
Q: Were you worried about that?
EB: Yeah, of course. It was a fair drive from here down to Santa Monica so...
Q: What does your four-year-old think of you being The Hulk?
EB: He has no idea.
He's kind of more got his head around Hector because he's been into work and
seen the costumes and the hair and beard. He's met Peter O'Toole and calls him,
"King Peter."
"Why doesn't the king have a crown?"
Q: What is your son's name?
EB: Klaus
Q: Is your wife an actress?
EB: No she's not. We met through work. She was a publicist on a television
network and that's how we met back in Australia. We were friends for quite a
while before we became partners.
Q: Do you make your home here?
EB: No. We live in Australia. We live in Melbourne.
Q: What was your reaction when you first saw your face on the body of a big,
green monster?
EB: Yeah there are a couple of moments where you get glimpses of Bruce there,
aren't there? Yeah, it was kind of weird, I guess.
Q: They mentioned that the creature's eyes for the close ups were very much
inspired by your eyes. Do you see that?
EB: Yeah, there's a couple of moments where I saw what they're alluding to,
definitely.
Q: What other sources of inspirations do you have as an actor or in your
daily life?
EB: I think just the idea of losing myself completely is the thing that I
probably am most attracted to. Try to get as far away from me, not in a kind of
show-offy way, but in a kind of fantasy way. I enjoy the fantasy of this kind of
work. I don't know if I'm answering your question but...
Q: You started to say before that when you did your research, that the comics
and TV show didn't really inform you. So like with Hector, where do you go to
find out about this world and character?
EB: Well I looked into mythology a lot. That was actually quite helpful with
this as well. I guess you look at the kind of basic elements of the journey of
the character and that's where I guess the lateral movement comes from. It might
not have anything to do with his specific role in life, but the various
similarities, maybe with a general with World War II or something, or maybe with
somebody else from a different period of time...so I think quite often my
research material, if you saw it sitting on the desk, you'd think, "what
the hell is he doing reading that?"