Hulk Movie Article: Aussie Homebody is ready to "Hulk out"
Melbourne actor Eric Bana set to shed anonymity as Global stardom arrives at 34. "It comes at the right time", he says, "But plain and simply, Melbourne is my home. And I am a homebody, you know?"
LOS ANGELES—Eric Bana was in the bathroom of his bayside home in Melbourne, Australia, when he finally decided it was time to take on Hollywood.
The surroundings had nothing to do with it, he offers with a smile. "That's just where I was when I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to be at the mercy of the Australian television industry any more."
Ironically, TV provided the former bartender turned stand-up comic with his entry into show business a decade ago on the Australian sketch comedy program Full Frontal.
But it was the movie Chopper — a grizzly depiction of real life prisoner Mark "Chopper" Read — that made him a household name Down Under. Now the 34-year-old father of two is savouring his last days of anonymity in the United States before the big screen version of Marvel Comics' The Hulk hits theatres Friday.
"I keep telling myself it is gonna be just the same as at home, only in a different country," he says, gazing up at a six-metre-high replica of the comic monster on the Universal Studios back lot.
In what is reported to be the first in a trilogy of Hulk films, Bana stars as Dr. Bruce Banner, a mild-mannered scientist who turns into the Not-So-Jolly Green Giant when he becomes angry.
The role was popularized on television by the late Bill Bixby in 1976, when a teenage Bana was busy "ramming around Tullamarine (a middle-class industrial suburb of Melbourne) on my BMX bike with my buddies, building jumps out of clay."
He still beams with pride about once jumping over 18 people on a bike using a two brick ramp — a stunt that terrified his mother, Eleanor, a retired German hairdresser.
Bana's father Ivan, a Croatian-born logistics manager for Caterpillar tractors, spent much of his time trying to keep the budding daredevil from pursuing a career in professional motor sports.
"My only interest was working on cars," Bana remembers.
"My dad said I could do whatever I wanted when I finished school, but he would not let me drop out to be a mechanic."
Instead, Bana earned his diploma and quickly took up work serving pints of lager and ale at Melbourne's Castle Hotel. It was there that a bar manager suggested he entertain customers with his impressions and stand-up comedy.
Within two years, Bana was invited to join Full Frontal, a comedy ensemble he compares to In Living Color.
But the young comic never saw himself as the next Jim Carrey. "I was probably more like Dana Carvey," he says.
Bana caught the attention of Hulk director Ang Lee with his performance in Chopper as a psychotic prisoner who cuts off his own ears in a bid to be isolated from other inmates.
"When I saw Chopper, I said, "There is the Hulk,'" Lee remembers.
"I think it is important the person carries potential hope just by looking at him. I wanted somebody more than just Bruce Banner in the comic book who is a wimp."
That's a stark contrast to Bana, who at 6-foot-2 was actually required to stay away from the gym and cover up his bulging muscles to pull off the character.
"We chose a wardrobe that would make me look as much like a scientist as possible," he explains.
"There were no T-shirts allowed. It drove me a little crazy because I really like to exercise."
Bana has always been health conscious, according to friends.
"Eric is so incredibly disciplined," says actor Matthew Marsden, his co-star in last year's military thriller Black Hawk Down.
"He is so careful what he eats. He has about 6 per cent body fat."
Even as a kid, Bana was always, as he puts it, "a decent sized boy." He played football, but otherwise kept mostly to himself. And if trouble ever came calling, he always had big brother Andrew, at 6-foot-8, around for backup.
Despite his stature, Bana insists it takes a lot to bring out his inner Hulk.
"I tend to be very quiet and not let the big things bother me," he says. "It's usually the small things. I have two kids, so I am usually Hulked out by 8:30 in the morning."
Bana prides himself on being a dedicated family man. Co-star Jennifer Connelly calls him "the type of guy who goes around showing off photos of his wife and kids."
His wife Rebecca is a former publicist and the daughter of Australia's High Court Chief Justice Murray Gleeson. They married in 1997 and travel together from set to set with son Klaus, 4, and daughter Sophia, 1.
In a few hours, Bana will head back to Malta, where his is currently filming Wolfgang Peterson's Troy with Brad Pitt and Ben Kingsley.
So far, Bana seems undaunted by the challenge of balancing a budding career and a successful family life.
"Undoubtedly there would be a lot of pressure if I weren't in a happy relationship, but we've got a lot of stuff under our belt and I think the best thing for me is the age at which all of this happened," he says.
"If I was 21 and single, come on! There would be plenty of opportunities to make a dick out of myself."
Maybe that's one more reason he recently purchased a second home for $4 million (U.S.) in Sydney and says there are no plans to relocate to Hollywood any time soon.
"It's not that I am anti-America," he says. "I really enjoy my time in L.A. and New York is one of my favourite cities in the world. But plain and simply, Melbourne is my home. And I am a homebody, you know?"