Ruffalo: 'Incredible Hulk is like Hamlet'

Mark Ruffalo has compared Marvel character the Incredible Hulk to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The actor, who has replaced Edward Norton in the role for the upcoming Avengers movie, also revealed that he was not entirely comfortable with the way he won the role.

"I'm a friend of Ed's, and yeah, that wasn't a great way for all that to go down," he told Entertainment Weekly of his casting, which was announced at last week's Comic-Con. "But the way I see it is that Ed has bequeathed this part to me. I look at it as my generation's Hamlet."

Ruffalo revealed that he admired Bill Bixby's portrayal of the superhero in the '70s TV series: "I grew up on the Bill Bixby TV series, which I thought was a really nuanced and real human way to look at the Hulk. I like that the part has those qualities."

The actor added that he sees Hulk as "a guy struggling with two sides of himself - the dark and the light - and everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control".

The Avengers, featuring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner, will open in cinemas in May 2012.