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For 'Incredible Hulk' Star William Hurt, It's All About The Back-Breaking Work
Posted by Seth at 3:55 AM on June 17, 2008
Anti-smoking watchdog groups might not be too pleased with William Hurt's turn as the stogy-chomping Gen. Thaddeus Ross in The Incredible Hulk, but the gruff, unscrupulous character was one of the film's pleasant surprises. Like Jeff Bridges as Iron Man's Obadiah Stane, the Hollywood veteran was rendered almost unrecognizable, called upon to play the villain beneath some bushy facial outcroppings and the corrugated complexion of a former pretty-boy pushing 60. Sitting down with a starstruck CNN correspondent, Hurt couldn't underscore enough just how "not fun" the creative process was:
CNN: Well, how much fun did you have playing this role?
Hurt: I don't call it fun, I call it work. If it was fun, they wouldn't call it work. I mean, play is play, fun is fun and work is work. They're different.
Hurt: I work hard, even if it's supposed to be fun for someone else, it's work for me.
CNN: You [worked with] a great cast of characters — really accomplished actors and actresses, that really take their craft seriously. So did you have a great time on set with them?
Hurt: It's not a party.
CNN: But it's nice to be around people who like to work as hard as you do.
Hurt: I like to work. I'm glad, I'm privileged to have work. But I approach it that way and I don't go ... I'm not going out at night. I'm not going to party. I'm going to go do something that will make me break a sweat.
Still unconvinced that the summer-blockbuster-making process isn't something akin to sleepaway camp for famous people, the CNN reporter then pressed, "Well, but let's say you're at the premiere party. And, like, there's an open bar, and all the people who made the movie with you are there—like Edward's there, and Liv, and...Tim! Can't forget Tim—and everyone's eating from the fondue fountain and having cocktails and just toasting to a job well done. Then is it fun? Is your job fun then?" at which point Hurt was reduced to using a nearby bowl of fruit to fully illustrate the concepts, with green apples representing "work," nectarines "fun," and a single, ripe banana standing in for the concept of "play."
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secretagentman
Posted 4:52 AM 17/6/08
He's batshit crazy. When he shot some MOW w/Mary Louise Parker, the crew bet each day who would say and/or do the craziest shit. I think it was a tie.
secretagentman
CatherineTrammell
Posted 4:38 AM 17/6/08
Somebody needs to pull the stogie out of their ass.
CatherineTrammell
wednesdaywolf
Posted 4:18 AM 17/6/08
Fun is fun. Play is play. It's true. I hate when my play gets in the way of my fun. Unless he's talking about theatre, in which case, yeah, plays are not fun. Or work. Which is not job. Or party. Or sane.
wednesdaywolf
CourageousCoward
Posted 4:12 AM 17/6/08
"I'm going to go do something that will make me break a sweat." - Like this interview. Seriously, Bill, what's it gonna take to make you say you had fun making this film?!
CourageousCoward
kookla
Posted 4:09 AM 17/6/08
Let's be fair. When you're acting with Liv Tyler, someone's got to do the heavy lifting.
kookla
spanktastic
Posted 4:04 AM 17/6/08
Pompous is pompous.
spanktastic
wednesdaywolf
Posted 5:33 AM 17/6/08
Yeah. This goes a little beyond, "Your questions are stupid, so stfu." I don't think that they represent a "nice way" of doing anything.
If he didn't want reporters asking him if doing the stupid movie was fun, he shouldn't have done the stupid movie.
He's an ass. His voice is so naturally patronizing it makes my skin crawl.
wednesdaywolf
wharfrat
Posted 5:14 AM 17/6/08
Fair enough, but he was a blowhard when he was young and pretty, especially to those who knew him personally.
wharfrat
stranger
Posted 5:03 AM 17/6/08
@spanktastic:
Or maybe he just didn't feel like talking to the idiot reporter asking the insultingly stupid questions. I think his response was a nice way of saying that while he wasn't thrilled to be playing a ludicrously one-dimensional comic book character, they paid him a shitload of money to, so he worked as hard as he could to give the filmmakers the performance they asked for.
Anybody here see The Incredible Hulk yet? It makes the Ang Lee film seem decent by comparison. Other than the Hulk smashing things scenes, this one is much, much worse than the original. I can only imagine how many times Hurt rolled his eyes before a take, or if he even read the script before agreeing to the role. Frankly I'd ask that of just about every other cast member too. The money must've been great, because there's nothing else about the movie that could've made it worthwhile for the actors involved.
If you're a Hulk fan you might enjoy parts of it, but for people who just love movies, this one's a mess. Unless you of course you're 12.
stranger
DrFeelgood
Posted 6:40 AM 17/6/08
Sounds like a fun guy to spend twelve hours on the set with.
Next!
DrFeelgood
Ofeelya
Posted 6:36 AM 17/6/08
I sat behind him on a flight to Paris a few years ago, and I never saw someone try SO hard to be invisible. The giveaway was that his jacket said "Bill" over the left breast, with the movie name, which I've forgotten, on the back in big letters. When we got to baggage claim, he stood facing AWAY from the carousel toward the crowd, all of whom ignored him. What an ass.
Ofeelya
bess marvin, girl detective
Posted 7:01 AM 17/6/08
@stranger: then that puts him in the heigl camp, no? they get offered a character that is either going to suck hard or is good but the movie is bad, but the pay is delicious. i say, the minute you sign the dotted line, your ability to talk shit about said role and be received by the public as decent goes out the window. who wants to hear any of these people bitch and complain when they are making more for three months work than most americans will ever see?
bess marvin, girl detective
Shumina
Posted 6:58 AM 17/6/08
"Give the man an 'A' for effort!"
Kudos if you get it.
Shumina
hummingpenguin
Posted 8:41 AM 17/6/08
@bess marvin, girl detective: "Hurt: I like to work. I'm glad, I'm privileged to have work." So, um, yeah. He's not complaining about the movie. He's trying his best to tolerate yet another brain-dead reporter. I would kill myself if I had to put up with this all the time.
hummingpenguin
uncle_wiggly
Posted 9:33 AM 17/6/08
I didn't see Hulk yet, but why didn't Bill Hurt shave his head for this part. It seems to me that every action film this season has a bald thinly veiled Dick Cheney character who goes around and waterboards the good guys like in Iron Man or that last Bourne sequel. Bill needs to work harder damnit. Work Harder!
uncle_wiggly
Nunaurbiz
Posted 9:03 AM 17/6/08
OMG who was this supposed journalist??? I'm betting he/she attended the Juliana DiPandi School of Pandering Journalism. You don't interview a Serious Actor like Bill Hurt and ask questions like that!!! Sounds like this CNN reporter's producer was meting out some punishment by not prepping him/her after he/she failed to do his/her own homework.
I've heard all the stories about how hard Bill Hurt can be to get along with and I've heard many good stories about how great he can be when he's approached the right way. I don't blame him at all for reacting to horrible questions.
And whatever he does as a person, I still admire him greatly as an actor.
I think Hurt would have chewed this reporter up in his earlier days. Makes me wonder if this person tried to interview Ed Norton!!!!!!! :-D
Nunaurbiz
bess marvin, girl detective
Posted 10:12 AM 17/6/08
@hummingpenguin: unfortuantely, the brain dead reporters comes with the territory of signing your name on the agreement to help promote the movie. it's called publicity.
bess marvin, girl detective
Barbarella
Posted 10:58 AM 17/6/08
Every reponse of Hurt's read, "Edward Norton is an asshole" to me.
Barbarella
gwendolyn
Posted 12:47 AM 18/6/08
@uncle_wiggly: With his head shaved, though, I would not have been wondering for the first few minutes of the movie 'who's that actor who looks like a middle-aged Paul Newman?'
And Liv Tyler really doesn't have much in the way of acting chops, but she is radiant onscreen in a way that 90% of the young actresses working now would die to be.
And in the movies, that counts for alot...
gwendolyn
TheQuestion
Posted 12:39 AM 18/6/08
@Barbarella: That does seem to be the one thing everyone involved in this movie can agree on.
TheQuestion
TheQuestion
Posted 12:38 AM 18/6/08
@stranger: Good thing there were enough of us Hulk fans to generate that 54.whatever million box office. BTW, Ang Lee's piece of crap could not hold a candle to this movie. You didn't like Iron Man, either, right?
TheQuestion