“He had 14 years of speech therapy” Just to Say ‘Hulk Smash!’ — Lou Ferrigno’s Incredible Journey Was Wasted at Marvel Despite Making the Studio Famous in the 1970s
- Bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno played Hulk on The Incredible Hulk series in 1970s.
- Executive Producer reveals Lou Ferrigno took speech therapy to play Hulk.
- It used to take Lou Ferrigno over three hours everyday to get ready as Hulk.
Before the funny yet powerful Mark Ruffalo took on the baton of playing Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there were other actors who also reveled in the anger of the mighty green monster. Edward Norton came before Ruffalo, and even before him, there were Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno who portrayed the Marvel hero on screen in a television show.
Bixby used to play Dr. Banner and Ferrigno, being a bodybuilder with a great physique played Hulk on screen. Back then, we didn’t have great visual effects and CGI that could transform an actor into a superhero or a monster, so two actors took on the responsibility of portraying the twin personalities of the character.
Lou Ferrigno took speech therapy to play Hulk
Lou Ferrigno was very famous for his bodybuilding skills and his powerful physique back in the 1970s when having abs was uncommon. He even trained with the famous Terminator actor Arnold Schwarzenegger as the two shared their mutual love for staying fit and healthy.
When Ferrigno was cast in The Incredible Hulk, he just had to look angry and strong in green paint. Bill Bixby took care of the human Dr. Banner aspect of the role. However, to train for the role, Ferrigno certainly focused on his body but also trained his speech. Executive producer Kenneth Johnson revealed to Rolling Stone in 2015,
He had 14 years of speech therapy, but it was all in Brooklyn. And do we really need him to say, ‘Hulk smash?’ It’s like, hello, duh!
Ferrigno was not a professional actor at the time who knew great dialogue delivery and acting. He was a bodybuilder and chose to focus on his domain for the Hulk role as well. However, despite training and getting speech therapy, we don’t get to see Ferrigno deliver any dialogues as Hulk.
Seems like a wasted opportunity on the producers’ part since that could have added a layer of authenticity and humanity to the role. The Incredible Hulk of the late 1970s infused new life into the Marvel Studios banner as the show rose to greater heights with each new season.
Lou Ferrigno reveals his makeup and costume routine for playing Hulk
In a 2018 interview with Saratoga Living, the actor sat down with the team to talk about his iconic Hulk role in The Incredible Hulk series back in 1977. The show went on for five seasons in which Ferrigno was just supposed to play Hulk in green paint and an angry avatar. Talking about his process of getting ready for the shoot, Ferrigno revealed,
The makeup took, like, three-and-half hours, and they used grease makeup on my face, because they had to glue the Hulk’s nose and forehead onto my skin, and then they’d powder it down. That would take an hour or an hour and a half. Then, my body got four or five coats of pancake makeup, which I despised. I hated it. And then you had another crew that came in and put on the clothing, wig, eyes and teeth. The eyes were painful because I could only wear them for 15 minutes at a time; they gave me peep-hole vision. So most of the time I spent in a motorhome, cold, because my skin had a tendency to sweat more with makeup on, and I’d have to be re-touched all the time. Usually, I was the first one on set and the last one to leave.
Imagine going through such an ordeal to be on screen to just roar and fight. Ferrigno truly proved himself to be a thoroughly dedicated and hard-working actor as he prepared for the role in such depth. From speech therapy to long hours of makeup and costume prep, Ferrigno struggled every day to make the most of the role that shot him to stardom.
