Acclaimed actor Tim Roth starred as Emil Blonsky/The Abomination in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, a job he tells ABC Audio he took enthusiastically, because he got “to play a monster.”
“You know, I just felt it was for the kids, when you’re picking them up at school,” he recalled with a laugh.
Roth says the Marvel Cinematic Universe “didn’t exist” when he did The Incredible Hulk.
“It was, you know, before Robert Downey and the Iron Man thing … I’m sure they saw potential, but we didn’t even think about it.”
Roth reprised his role within the MCU with a small scene in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which led directly to the events of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, in which he’s a recurring character.
“When they came to me … I said, ‘Really? OK!'” the Pulp Fiction star recalls.
However, performing in the show — sometimes in a motion-capture suit — was a different experience. “I had no idea how to operate within this world,” he admits.
Luckily, the “brilliant” Tatiana Maslany and Mark Ruffalo, Maslany’s onscreen cousin who plays Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk, showed Roth the ropes.
“Mark is someone I’ve always wanted to work with, so even under these bizarre and fun circumstances, I consider I’ve worked with him now,” Roth smiles. “So they gave me a quick a fast track education, how to operate within that, and figure out that world and … how to deliver.”
He says, “It was a lot of a lot of fun. It was, again, one for the kids, you know?”
A new episode of She-Hulk dropped Thursday on Disney+.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
