If you haven’t watched it by now, the Happy. Sad. Confused. watch-along with “The Incredible Hulk” director Louis Leterrier is filled with all sorts of gems. The filmmaker talks about all aspects of his Marvel Studios film, warts and all. And that includes an uncomfortable interaction he experienced with actor William Hurt.
In the conversation about “The Incredible Hulk,” the discussion turned towards working with the late William Hurt, who sounds like he was fun to work with but also a little bit challenging at times, which is maybe the way the actor wanted it.
“He was tough to convince that we weren’t just making a paint-by-the-numbers comic book movie,” Leterrier said. “He also didn’t want the mustache to out act him, you know? So the size of the mustache was a discussion.”
“But sometimes, he and I clashed,” the filmmaker added, suggesting that might have been Hurt’s style to some degree. “But i think that was his… there are three types of actors: you’ve got your partners, you’ve got your best friends that you have to cajole all day, and you have the people that like to have these arguments; they feed off that, that’s how he worked.”
Then Leterrier described a day on the set of “The Incredible Hulk” when Hurt got upset.
“One day, he was just screaming at me, ‘You don’t know anything about actors! we have…” Letterier pivoted, explaining that he was in a control room and Hurt was in a movable helicopter set that the filmmaker had full control of. “He was like, ‘You have to find the button to the nuclear power that is near a nuclear plant–‘ and I took the joystick and went [makes flapping back and forth noise], and basically he [flew], I shook him in the thing and he fell. And then he looked at me and went [points and puts on a gruff William Hurt voice], ‘I like you!'” Letterier recalled with a laugh.
“And that was it,” he chuckled. “He just wanted to have a little bit of a fight.”
Of course, we all know that William Hurt would continue to work in the MCU, showing up in various films including “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Infinity War.” Unfortunately, due to his passing, the role has been recast with Harrison Ford taking over in the upcoming “Captain America: Brave New World.” Now that we know Hurt was a bit of a grump on set, perhaps its fitting to have someone like Ford take over, huh?
You can watch the full discussion below:
