How Did They Film Hulk in ‘The Avengers?’ Like This…

When we were on the set of 'The Avengers' back in 2010, we spoke to Mark Ruffalo about what it was like to act not as Bruce Banner but as The Hulk. He said of the experience, "I was a miserable bastard. A trained actor reduced to the state of a Chinese checkerboard." Ruffalo eventually got over the embarrassment of wearing his Hulk mo-cap suit, but now we finally have a look at why he was so embarrassed and how they created The Hulk on set.

If you've seen the film (and we're sure you have), you know that The Hulk is one of the best parts of the film and his fight with Thor is a standout. Above we have a shot from the from behind-the-scenes that shows Ruffalo in his checkered motion-capture suit with the giant green prosthetic worn on his upper half to simulate Hulk's size.

In the image below, you get another look at filming this same scene and as Ruffalo stands up (next to director Joss Whedon), you get a better sense of the foam top that the actor is wearing to bring Hulk to life. It looks like the head of a Disney character costume mixed with football shoulder pads.

This is all a big step up from previous Hulk films when the majority of the action was done via dropping in a CG character that was created off-set. This new technology allowed Ruffalo, as The Hulk, to interact with the other superheroes and, as you can see, jump on his back.

There's a video below that goes into some detail on exactly how Industrial Light and Magic created the Hulk effects, which is a pretty fascinating watch. This, and I'm sure much, much more on the creation of Hulk, will be included on the DVD and Blu-ray when it hits stores this fall.