Sam Brigger
speaker
1,127 appearances
24 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 6 Jun
Sam Brigger’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.
Appearances
You've been in like romantic comedies and you've been in movies that have comedic elements like The Brothers Bloom and even in the Avengers movies. But I don't think you've ever had a role that was so broadly comic as this one. I mean you even do a pratfall at one point.
So can you just sort of compare what it's like to act in something that's comedic like this compared to your more like dramatic roles?
Yeah, yeah. You're almost like skating up the stairs, like your arms are going back and forth. And then at the landing, you just go flop over.
The character in the movie is described as a cad and a rake, and he's disreputable, but he's definitely working within the boundaries of society. And he's challenged and finally undone by Emma Stone's complete uninhibitedness. Can you talk about that?
Well, let's hear a clip of him sort of getting undone by Emma Stone's behavior. This scene takes place. The two characters have been put ashore in France and Paris, penniless, and you're completely dispirited. And Bella Baxter, Emma Stone's character, decides to go find money. And so she prostitutes herself to get money and then comes back eating like pastries. I can't remember. It's an eclair.
Yeah, an eclair. Eating eclair. And you're like, where did this come from? So let's hear some of that scene.
That's Mark Ruffalo and Emma Stone in Poor Things. As Mark Ruffalo's character, Duncan Wedderburn, sort of falls apart in just the onslaught of Emma Stone's uninhibitedness. So, you know, there's a sex scene montage in Poor Things that I wanted to talk to you about. Like, you've done sex scenes before, but this is sex played for comedy. Like, it's not supposed to be sexy.
I mean, it's meant to make the audience laugh. I mean, the characters are having a good time, but it's filmed to look awkward and rutting, and your character's even wearing a corset. So can you talk about, like, doing that kind of scene for comedy? Sure.
So, Mark, I have to ask you about the big green guy. Yeah. Since 2012, you've been playing the Incredible Hulk and, as I said, a bunch of different Marvel movies and TV shows starting with the first Avengers movie. So in 2012, there were just a lot of superhero movies out there and a lot of really good actors were being swept up in them, particularly Robert Downey Jr. playing Iron Man.
But did you ever think you were going to play a superhero? No.
To play the Hulk, you have to spend a lot of time acting in a motion capture suit. Did you have any apprehensions about doing that? I hated it.
That's really interesting. What about just in terms of being expressive with your face? Because Your face is obviously a big tool for an actor. Were you concerned that you would be doing all this work and it wouldn't be accurately captured by the animation?
What about the celebrity from being part of the Marvel Universe? By the time you started being the Incredible Hulk, you were already a very well-known and successful actor. But was the celebrity and the recognition sort of exponentially different? Yeah.
does it take away from simple things like walking down the street or going for a hike or something?
You know, they got their head down on the phone or in a book, sleeping, whatever. Do you have to do like the cap and sunglasses thing all the time?
If you're just joining us, our guest is actor Mark Ruffalo. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film Poor Things. We'll be back after a short break. This is Fresh Air.
This is Fresh Air. I'm Sam Brigger. One of our favorite interviews from the year was with our guest Mark Ruffalo. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film Poor Things. Some of his other movies include Spotlight, Foxcatcher, The Kids Are Alright, Zodiac, and You Can Count on Me. He's also played the Incredible Hulk in many Marvel movies and TV shows.
Mark, to prepare for this interview, I watched a lot of your films, and I watched this trio of films that you did, which are all based on historical events. There's actually some sort of similarity between them. This is Zodiac, Foxcatcher, and Spotlight. And I read that for two of those movies, the people you were portraying were still alive, and you –
Got to spend time with them, got to know them. And this was Dave Tosky, who was one of the detectives investigating the Zodiac killings. And then for Spotlight, you spent time with one of the reporters who was investigating the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Mike Resendiz.
So when you're portraying a historical figure, an actual person, how much of an effort do you make to try to be as much like them as possible? Let's stick with Mike Rezende. How much time did you spend with him?
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