Mark Ruffalo has done a lot of movies in his career and played a wide range of roles. But the one character he is most synonymous with is the Incredible Hulk from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. First seen in the 2012 movie Avengers, he has since reprised his role multiple times and is one of the fan-favorite superheroes from the entire Marvel-verse.
Replacing Edward Norton, Ruffalo was surprisingly not the first choice of Marvel. And before he got his most popular role, Leonardo DiCaprio’s co-star and Wolf of Wall Street actor Matthew McConaughey was lobbying to portray the incredible ‘smasher’. But he was, fortunately for Ruffalo, rejected by the studio.
Matthew McConaughey Wanted To Be Hulk Before Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo gained an insane amount of popularity as Hulk. But it wasn’t because he was Hulk but rather his portrayal of Hulk which is regarded as one of the best so far. Not only do the fans love the simplicity he brought to the character, but his unique blend of humor and reliability makes Ruffalo the perfect embodiment of the popular comic-book character.
However, before him, the Dallas Buyers Club star Matthew McConaughey lobbied hard to play Bruce Banner. While he has been a fan favorite cast to play multiple MCU characters and was even offered to play Ego, Star Lord’s father, McConaughey would rather be the green gigantic smasher.
In an interview with Josh Horowitz, the star revealed that he was interested to play the character and even approached Marvel. Unfortunately for him, Marvel wasn’t interested.
“They said, ‘No, thank you.'”
McConaughey stated while heartbroken to never have gotten a chance to play his favorite superhero. However, seeing Marvel going the multiverse way, maybe he could pop up as a variant of the Incredible Hulk.
Mark Ruffalo Was Not The First Choice Of Marvel
While The Incredible Hulk featured Edward Norton as the green gigantor, Norton was never the first choice of the director Louis Leterrier. Instead, Leterrier wanted to cast Ruffalo but was turned down by Marvel since they wanted a famous actor rather than an ‘intellectual’ one.
“I actually wanted to cast Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Marvel was like ‘No, you should get Edward Norton because he’s more famous.’ They are the ones who wanted Edward – and I was thrilled to meet him and work with him. I wanted Mark Ruffalo. And they were like, ‘No, no, he just does smart, intellectual movies.'”
While Ruffalo lost that movie to Norton, he is now playing Hulk for the past 11 years and is definitely regarded as the best Hulk so far.
The Incredible Hulk can be streamed on Disney+.
Source: The Direct and Independent
