Meeting The Incredible Hulk

Don't make him angryThere are big people and then there's Lou Ferrigno. Lou was in Melbourne appearing at the Supanova pop culture expo.

I asked Lou if he really turned green when he gets angry. He smiled and said that he never gets angry. However, he used to get frustrated growing up because he was trying to deal with losing most of his hearing from the age of 3 due to an ear infection. He couldn't understand what people were saying on TV so he turned to comics books and dreamed of one day being the Hulk. He became extremely introverted and was severely bullied at school because he had to wear a large hearing aid. Also, Lou couldn't make the football team because he was too skinny.

You get the feeling when talking to Lou that underneath this massive frame is a sensitive and vulnerable guy with a burning passion to overcome any obstacle that is thrown his way.

In his teens Lou discovered what was once a fairly unknown sport called bodybuilding. He lifted weights day and night telling himself he was going to get so big and so strong that no one would ever pick on him again. He would build a suit of armour made from muscle. Asked if anyone had ever picked on him after grew into a giant, he joked that it would be the quickest way for someone to commit suicide.

During the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron, Lou was competing against Arnold Schwarzenegger for the 1975 Mr Olympia contest. Although he was starring in the film, Lou needed his over-bearing father to speak on his behalf as he was to shy to conduct himself properly in interviews because his hearing loss affected his speech. He still seems slightly on edge when talking about his relationship with his father and says that he remembers being taken to a gun range when he was a boy. His father fired a pistol 5 times into the face of a target and turned to Lou and said that if Lou ever misbehaved or didn't do what his father told him, that those bullets would be in Lou.

Looking at Lou is like looking at a gentle giant. He hasn't lost any of his form and looks younger than his 56 years. He has 2% body fat on a 6 foot 5 inch 325 pound frame. You can't help but be awe-struck when he strikes a Hulk pose. He talks about his time competing against Arnold and his scenes in Pumping Iron like they happened yesterday. Arnold is still one of Lou's idols and Lou remembers when he was training in a dungeon-like gym in New York constantly being belittled and beaten down by his father. Lou would scream Arnold's name while heaving weights to keep himself motivated. In contrast, Arnold was training on Venice Beach with other bodybuilders, the sun and girls. All Lou wanted was to be there having fun too.

The shy, embarrassed, introverted Lou from his Pumping Iron days has gone. Since then he played professional football (but stopped because he didn't like hitting people), became a TV star, he is a motivational speaker, a deputy sheriff, a highly sought after personal trainer, a pop culture icon and a hero to many fans. Asked who his heroes were he said they used to be Steve Reeves and Arnold Schwarzenegger but now they are his wife and children.

Lou will be making a cameo in the new Hulk movie starring Ed Norton. He appeared in the last Hulk movie along side Stan Lee the creator of the Hulk. He said that when they first met, Stan he told him he needed to pack on some muscle. The new movie will be more in line with the TV series and will have nothing to do with the previous Hulk movie directed by Ang Lee.

Lou remembers his time portraying the Hulk fondly and was disappointed when the show stopped. He said he still trains with the same intensity and passion as he did in the seventies.