Joss Whedon: AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON Is About Being 'Strong But Damaged By Power'
Hit the jump and check out the latest from Joss Whedon on his Avengers sequel via set reports, in which the director talks the Hulk, Ultron, and "Frankensteins" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Joss Whedon continued, "'Strong but damaged by power' describes every person in this movie. It may, in fact, describe what the movie is about. You know, the more power that we have, the less human we are." This especially applies to the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). "What makes the Hulk so hard to write is that you're pretending he's a werewolf when he's a superhero," Whedon says of his approach to the character. "You want it vice versa. You want to see him and Banner doesn't want to see him, but you don't want Banner to be that guy who gets in the way of you seeing him. So the question is, how has he progressed? How can we bring changes on what the Hulk does?" Whedon went on to explain how Ultron will be the ultimate villain or, perhaps, the ultimate hero. "Ultron feels a certain distance from humanity. When he’s in his scenes, you want to feel like he will never understand that he’s not the hero. Hopefully, you will come out of this... if not agreeing with him, (then) getting him, and getting his pain, which leads to a lot of damage, and some humor." With James Spader behind the villain's portrayal in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon had nothing but praise for the actor. "[He's] very game and has been the whole time," he said. "Very interested in the mechanics of the mechanics, and of finding the humanity. He and I share a genuine love of this version of Ultron, and he has an innate eccentricity in his delivery that is everything that I had hoped Ultron would be." Of the motion capture duds Spader had to wear for his scenes, Whedon describes it as "...a giant thing with red dots on it for his eye line, and a giant pack, and a helmet with two cameras in his face with lights to record his performance."