Edward Norton talks about not playing The Hulk in The Avengers

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It wasn't too long ago that Edward Norton played the role of The Hulk; six years have passed since he took on the role for the 2008 reboot of the 2003 Ang Lee film. There was also that public feud between Norton and Marvel; I still don’t think we got the full story. Norton reportedly wanted in on THE AVENGERS, but Marvel wanted someone to work for less. Then some nice Marvel reps claimed that they passed on Norton because they needed someone who "embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members," which is suit talk for Norton not being a team player.  Then Norton’s people said that Marvel’s statement was a “purposefully misleading, inappropriate attempt to paint our client in a negative light.”  Eventually Norton posted a sincere thank you to Marvel and to the fans that supported his version of Bruce Banner. Classy guy.

It’s safe to say that Norton and Marvel has done well without each other ever since, but Norton of course still gets asked about all that rage from the past. Talking to NPR’s Terry Gross on Fresh Air about BIRDMAN Norton said:

"My feeling was that I experimented and experienced what I wanted to.  I really, really enjoyed it.  And yet, I looked at the balance of time in life that one spends not only making those sorts of films but then especially putting them out, and the obligations that rightly come with that.  There were just a lot of things—I wanted more diversity.  I sort of chose to continue on my path of having a diversity of experiences.  Maybe on some unconscious level, I didn’t want to have an association with one thing in any way degrade my effectiveness as an actor, in characters.  I think you can sort of do anything once, but if you do it too many times, it can become a suit that’s hard to take off, in other peoples’ eyes.  And if I had continued on with it, I wouldn’t have made Moonrise Kingdom, or Grand Budapest, or Birdman, because those all overlapped with [Avengers].  And those were more the priority for me, but I continue to be a fan and I’m really, really happy I got to do it once."

He certainly sounds like he’s happy where he is, and why shouldn’t he be? His resume speaks for itself and I can’t imagine the body of work here without him. The glorious looking BIRDMAN aside, he can be proud of MOONRISE KINGDOM and THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. We all win in the end, especially the ladies: