THE INCREDIBLE HULK: WILLIAM HURT

There's no twirling involved, but the moustache definitely helped William Hurt get into the character of General Thunderbolt Ross in The Incredible Hulk.

"There was a small moment, but the penny just dropped. It's the moustache," Hurt said about his development for the role as the Hulk's nemesis. "C'mon! Just go to the comic book... In every one of the iterations of the comic book, there's the theme of him. He has the silver hair, the silver 'stache and the big eyebrows.

"I thought this is great. I can make a bold statement. I can do something bold."

Hurt said the makeup process for Ross took about 75 minutes.

"Which is not bad at all, for such an extensive makeup transformation," Hurt said. "They put a 'toupe on me, pasted a big moustache on on me and past some eyebrows on me."

Ross even has scars on his face, no doubt from battle. Hurt explained make-up artist Jordan Samuel gave the character many details before any of the hair pieces were put on.

"He goes through with very fine brushes and he creates -- we discussed this -- this whole other face, underneath the hair," Hurt said.

Hurt follows Sam Elliott from 2003's Hulk in the role of the larger-than-life army man.

"William Hurt is one of the best actors that I've ever worked with," said producer Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios. "He clearly has something in him that he doesn't let out very often. And we said, what if we asked him to come in and just pour it out. And that's Thunderbolt Ross. And that's exactly what he did."

In the film, Ross is responsible for getting Banner into the scientific development that led to the accident that turned him into the Hulk. He is also responsible for subjecting Emil Blonsky to the Super Soldier serum, which catalyzes his transformation into the Abomination.

"Ross is a military mind," Hurt said. "He's completely galvanized by images of superior power."

Hurt's stature was important, not only in dealing with the powerful character but in interacting with his daughter Betty, played by Liv Tyler.

"Since Liv is a beautiful, tall woman, we couldn't get a little, round general," director Louis Leterrier said. "I had to find a mountain of a general, as Thunderbolt Ross was this big, scary mountain of a man in the comic books. I wanted somebody who is rare, somebody you are not expecting and who hasnıt been in these parts before."

Hurt called Ross a "conflicted man."

"He's caught between his love and loyalty to his daughter and to his country. And he's obsessed with stopping Bruce Banner and his alter ego.

"Ross starts to lose understanding of what he's doing, and why. He ends up ignoring his primary instinct as a parent and, ultimately, he's humiliated by the fact that the thing he hates most in the world saves his daughter's life. That's a heavy emotional toll."

And while Ross hates the Hulk, Hurt admires the character, calling him an "honest person" who is "struggling with impulses he is trying to discover and try to control."

"I found the comics deeply moving," he said. "I believe in The Hulk, absolutely. Thatıs why I did the movie."

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