They said no, thank you: Matthew McConaughey recalls being rejected as Hulk

Academy Award winning actor confessed that initially Marvel was not interested

In a recent interview, Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey revealed that Marvel had rejected him when he asked to play the Hulk.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, starting at the 39:00 mark, McConaughey and host Josh Horowitz start discussing the 70s Hulk TV series starring Lou Ferrigno. And as soon as Horowitz reinstated how McConaughey never got the chance to play the Hulk then, McConaughey admitted that he was personally up for the gig and even communicated it to Marvel.

"They said, 'No, thank you,'" McConaughey recalled.

He did not specify at what point he had the conversation with Marvel. But Mark Ruffalo was announced to be the new live-action Hulk actor at the Comic-Con 2010 and has played the role ever since. He replaced Edward Norton, who starred in the only solo Hulk movie in the MCU, The Incredible Hulk, in 2008.

During the podcast conversation, McConaughey amused about the music from the Ferrigno show and the "big, steel oxygen tanks."

"Remember, every episode, did he throw one of those big, steel oxygen tanks," McConaughey said chuckling. "They showed up in every scene, didn't they?" After a full laugh, McConaughey said, "Lou Ferrigno, thank you."

Ferrigno provided his voice for the Hulk in the MCU starting 2008 up to the second Avengers film, according to IGN. Ruffalo took over the voice starting with Thor: Ragnarok, but paid credit to Ferrigno during press for the Thor sequel.

“That’s who I watched playing the Hulk growing up," Ruffalo confessed on Yahoo in 2017. "[The voice is] definitely a nod to you, Lou. You influenced that.”

However, Ferrigno criticized the Hulk in Ragnarok for having too much dialogue when he's hulking out. Ferrigno also took issue with the Hulk in Avengers: Endgame and said the Hulk wasn't "hideous" enough. Imagine what Ferrigno would have said if McConaughey was used for the Hulk's motion capture.

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