IN CASE YOU THOUGHT ERIC BANA HAS METAL TEETH AND SEVERED EARLOBES, YOUR'RE WRONG. HE IS A CRACK U.S. COMMANDO, OH, AND THE INCREDIBLE HULK AS WELL.

There was a time when Eric Bana would have you in hysterics. Living rooms across Australia tuned into his hit comedy series for their weekly dose of Poida, the lager-swilling, mullet-haired bludger. Fast-forward to early 2002, and an audience with Bana at the Park Hyatt, Sydney, is no laughing matter. Gone are the witty one-liners and impersonations. Bana is now a 'serious' film actor with a shiny new Equity card - a career change prompted by the critical acclaim for his mesmerizing performance as multi-murderer and cult author 'Chopper' Read. When Bana morphed into the crim with metal-capped teeth, full body outline jail tatts and severed earlobes, Hollywood noticed. Without even an audition, Ridley Scott cast Bana in his latest big-budget epic. Black Hawk Down (BHD) is based on a doomed U.S. Special Forces action in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. About 100 elite commandos parachuted in from Black Hawk helicopters. The mission - to abduct two Somalian warlords. Big mistake. Eighteen commandos were killed, two of their mutilated corpses were dragged through the street. The other men fought their way out, and America learned the sobering lesson about sending ground troops into foreign wars.

Bana's role in the high-profile military thriller is an important watershed for the 33-year-old actor. Not only is it his first taste of Hollywood, it's a chance to carve out a name for himself, to prove he's not a one-hit wonder. "I'd read the book and thought, wow it would be great as a film," says Bana, slumping happily into his chair once his on-hand PR girl has left the room. "And then when Ridley was attached to it, I said to myself, 'What the fuck is he going to do with it?' It became intrinsically more interesting at that point, and I thought I'd be crazy not to do it."

Bana signed up for the demanding five-month shoot on location in Rabat, Morocco (the only place that would double as the Somalian capital). He lost the 13 kg he gained for Chopper ("I had to retire my stubby holder"), and spent months of hardcore commando training at Fort Bragg. As Sergeant First Class Norm 'Hoot' Hooten, an elite Delta Force soldier, Bana pumped himself up to commando bulk, and trained with real-life 'D-boys'. "It was a bit of a concern because we were using explosives and live ammunition," he laughs, pointing an imaginary M-16 in my direction, "but we got to the point when we [Bana and co-star Bill Fichtner] were working out way through buildings, taking down rooms and holding hostages, without speaking."

Bana found the pain and the military discipline ideal preparation for the physical demands of the shoot, and an opportunity to get into character. "I couldn't understand how the soldiers were so brave, but I grew to realize that their training has a lot to do with their courage. They're always performing a function, doing something, so they don't have time to sit still and be scared and stressed. That stuff comes later."

The reality of location work on a Hollywood blockbuster hit Bana in Rabat. "Working was by far the easiest part of Morocco," he explains, lighting a cigarette. "The tough part was being away from home with so much fucking downtime." Unlike Chopper, where he appears in every scene, Black Hawk Down showcases a huge multi-national ensemble cast - some 35 acting parts - and involves painstakingly recreated battle scenes. So Bana spent long periods of mind-numbing boredom in his hotel room. At one point, he had planned a three-day break in Spain with his wife Rebecca and two-year-old son Klaus. Then Scott told him he couldn't go.

"Some guys who lived on the East Coast of America got to go home for a couple of weeks, even the Brits would fly back to London occasionally, but I..." he says, working on a dramatic pause, "wasn't allowed to leave Rabat." Bana's role got bigger than the original script, but long days in front of Ridley Scott's cameras were a "momentous learning curve." Other actors in the film include Josh Hartnett and Ewan MacGregor.

Several violent films were pulled after 9/11, but Scott decided to release the $US95 million film. The timing was perfect to capture the zeitgeist; BHD was number one at the box office four weeks after it opened. Among the rave reviews, the Washington Post wrote, "The next best thing to being there. That's how real it feels."

Instead of taking a vacation or hanging out in Hollywood, Bana flew straight home after BHD, and onto the set of a small-budget Australian comedy, The Nugget. One day last September, while shooting in Mudgee, his mobile rang. It was Ang Lee, Academy Award-winning director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; the chameleon Taiwanese genius who has made such disparate film as Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm.

Bana had won the role he'd been chasing for several months, of Dr. Bruce Banner, in Hollywood's big-budget remake of The Incredible Hulk.

"I remember my American agent ringing me in Morocco and saying: 'They're making a movie version of The Hulk, are you interested?'" he says, drumming his empty cigarette box. "It wasn't until he mentioned that Ang Lee was directing it, that I thought, Fuck me, of course I am interested."

Then he got nervous. "You do get slightly freaked out about it, and you do lose sleep over it. But with Ang directing I knew I would be in good hands and really be pushed and tested.

"I've been a huge fan of Ang's since I saw The Ice Storm and I can't wait to see what he'll do with The Hulk. It'll be very different to your average superhero film." He's excited by the challenge of playing a modern-day Jekyll and Hyde. In the cult 60s comic, Dr. Banner is a nuclear scientist with a grim past. His father murdered his mother, and Banner is sporadically psychotic. When he gets stressed or angry, he turns into green 7', 600 kilo mass of rage. "What I love about The Hulk is that he's the only superhero with no control of being a superhero. Superman jumps in the phone booth, Spiderman puts on his outfit, Batman goes into his cave and Dr. Banner lives in complete and total fear of getting angry. What a great acting hook."

Bana then politely explains that he is not allowed to talk about the movie much, so I ask about his past. Forty minutes into the interview, and it's the first time he visibly relaxes. With the conversation off either current or future projects, cracks in his professional veneer begin to appear. Feet now on the sofa, coffee cup cradled in his hands, he suddenly breaks into an impromptu impersonation. To my surprise, it's neither his famed Ray Martin nor Columbo I hear, but the quasi-American tones of Ridley Scott.

"Er, what we're going to shoot right now is a RPG; a very, very powerful thing. Then I am going to cut to a Somali getting shot..." he says, before breaking off mid-sentence slightly embarrassed. The immigrant's son - his father is Croatian, and mother German - discovered his talent for mimicry at school in Melbourne. "It gave me currency with teachers that I otherwise wouldn't have had," he says, laughing. "I took it for granted until I began to realize that not everyone can do it." His first stand-up routine in 1991 was such a hit that he jacked in his job as a barman and began working the circuit.

After two years making people laugh in smoke-filled comedy venues and pubs, Bana was restless. "Though stand-up was initially a diversion to acting, I realized I could use it. If only I could get on Fast Forward, then maybe I might get somewhere," he says.

As luck would have it, Full Frontal - a skit show in the same vein as Fast Forward - came knocking on his door. To this day, Bana credits his experience on the TV comedy for his smooth transition into acting. He played new characters each week and performed for an audience of millions. "I just loved the work and how much you could learn," he says. In 1997 he won a Logie for comedy, and was cast as Sophie Lee's kick-boxing boyfriend in The Castle.

Although Andrew Dominik had reservations about Bana's inexperience, the first-time director auditioned him for Chopper. "We were under pressure to cast a name," says producer Michelle Bennett. "But we knew he'd convey the complexities. He immediately got the body language, the voice, all of the physical, 'outside in' stuff. And there's a certain charm about Chopper that Eric captured perfectly."

Is Bana getting giddy with his success? "I don't know that it hasn't gone to my head," he says, brushing cake-crumbs from his mouth. "The only thing that may make me different from other people is I have passionate interests outside of work. If I am not working, the last thing I am interested in is people blowing smoke up my arse. You see, I don't rely on my work world to fulfill me as a person. As long as I can play with my toys [cars and motorbikes], and hang out with my family and friends, I am happy."

Out of almost nowhere, Bana is now mentioned in the same tones as Russell and Heath. "It feels good," he admits, "but it's not something I take overly seriously. The best thing is that people have finally stopped saying someone's the next Mel Gibson and are now saying they're the 'next Russell Crowe'. I just hope that someone, somewhere down the line is going to be called 'the next Eric Bana'."