He was asked about his voice acting experience with
Adventure Time in playing the voice of Billy, and he said it was a lot of fun. He enjoyed doing voiceovers, but you can't really interact with the other actors because you have to talk into the microphone as opposed to being in front of the camera. He wants to be involved in the new CG TV series and he lobbied hard to play The Hulk in the first movie, but they ultimately went with a comic book version. He's very excited to be doing the voice of The Hulk in the new
Avengers movie and he'll be starting on that in the next few days.
He talked about his favorite episode in The Incredible Hulk which was called "King of the Beast" where he played both The Hulk and a bodybuilder who was competing to raise money to save a restaurant. He enjoyed it because it allowed him to stretch as an actor, but it was difficult to have to get into and out of The Hulk makeup for the different scenes. They even had scenes "together" which was interesting. He shared that the makeup took 3 to 3½ hours to apply and was the hardest part of the job, with prosthetic facial pieces and 5-6 layers of grease paint. Back then, he could only wear those colored contacts for 15 minutes at a time, whereas now you can wear them for hours. They would get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to get it all done, and he'd have a 12 egg omelet to keep himself going. One day, the cook left it on his trailer's porch to let it cool in the morning air and in those few minutes, the omelet disappeared. Coyotes had eaten it! I guess they weren't afraid of The Hulk.
When asked about Bill Bixby, he shared that Bill was a licensed magician and his mentor. He watched Bixby on the set, since he directed many episodes, and he learned so much from him. When asked about Stan Lee, he said he told Lee that he and his character of The Hulk were what inspired him as a young man to get into bodybuilding. Getting into bodybuilding shaped his entire life and he attributed it to Stan Lee.
He really enjoyed doing TV like The King of Queens because it is so much like real life. He also loved the film, I Love You Man and thought it was absolutely hysterical. He had so much fun with it, especially the chokehold. He loved the director and working with Paul Rudd and Jason Segal.
When asked who would play him in a movie about his life, he jokingly said, "Me" and followed it up with his youngest son, who is in his 20's and looks like a smaller version of him. He talked about the 90's cartoon where he worked with Mark Hamill and Kathy Ireland and it was a blast. Like a bunch of kids getting together and doing this animated show. When they did the voiceovers, they'd do the cartoons after the voiceovers, which made it more realistic, whereas the older cartoons would have the voiceovers following the art. Lastly, he was asked about his experience being on the Mr. Rogers Show. He said it was great because he loved the show, and he got to show a different side of The Hulk, but when Mr. Rogers came to his trailer to talk, he was too afraid to come in. It was pretty funny.
Lou Ferrigno was delightful and though his time with the audience was short, it was very interesting and informative. Check out his website at LouFerrigno.com.
