Josh Lucas, now current in Yellowstone played Bruce Banner’s antagonist, Talbot in Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk and in a new interview with The Playlist so he doesn’t skimp on superlatives when it comes to the director. He doesn’t want to use the word genius but does anyway, especially since the technology was nowhere near the level it is today. But what he did with film even then was unprecedented. In Lucas’ own words:
“If people ask me who my favorite directors are, I almost invariably will tell you my number one is Ang. I don’t use this word genius, but I think he’s truly up there as a, if not brilliant, genius filmmaker. Like you say, he was swinging for the rafters on Hulk. I don’t think the technology was quite where his brain was. And if you look at what he did with Life of Pi, he was able to hit it out of the park. “
He then recounted Lee’s frustration that CGI technology did not live up to his own high expectations when filming the Hulk, and how he also became one of those who would later push development forward:
“I think the technology evolved, and he’s one of the people who pushed the technology to evolve. I know he was pushing the team of people who were on the CGI of Hulk to make something that, technically, maybe wasn’t capable of being at the level he wanted it yet. And so I think he was very frustrated with that movie by not being able to get what he wanted and what was in his brain.”
When Hulk was made, there was no standard formula, no formula for how a superhero movie should be created, but Lee had to improvise and build his own template for success. However, he had an ambitious vision for the film and did things 20 years ago that Lucas hadn’t seen his husband do:
“The way he was morphing, the way pages were flipping. I mean, he was creating a visual comic book, and I haven’t seen anybody do it quite the same way he was doing it — think about it, that’s 20 years ago, right? So, there’s an incredible auteur filmmaker beneath this monster, an early Marvel movie. I have nothing but respect for it.”
