Mark Ruffalo chatted briefly with Vulture recently about what it’s like to play Bruce Banner and his big green alter-ego, and dropped a few interesting tidbits. While we’ve seen more than our fair share of actors playing Bruce Banner over the last few years, in The Avengers Ruffalo is doing the mocap work for The Hulk himself- something that neither Edward Norton or Eric Bana did.

“I’m really excited. No one’s ever played the Hulk exactly, they’ve always done CGI. They’re going to do the Avatar stop-action, stop-motion capture. So I’ll actually play the Hulk. That’ll be fun.”

Besides playing a retarded giant with anger issues he’s also excited about playing the mild-mannered scientist as well.

“I really love the first TV version of it, the Bill Bixby one,” Ruffalo told us. “I’m gonna shoot for that a little bit. He was an everyman in it. He’s always on the run and trying to find love. It’s really a sympathetic character, before he turns into the Hulk and fucks everything up.”

Pray that those purple pants stay on, too! This sucker’s going to be the first Hulk in 3D, after all.

“I hope I don’t bulge in anyone’s face, that’s all I have to say.”

Let’s hope the that Ruffalo manages to give a little bit of humanity to the Hulk’s performance. If anything, it will make for some downright hilarious behind the scenes footage for the blu-ray!