With Russell Crowe settling into a mellow married life, Eric Bana is staking his claim as the Aussie to watch. Before smoldering on the sidelines of Black Hawk Down, the former stand-up stretched his acting chops and his waistline as a cycle-ridin' gangsta in the little seen Chopper. Now, to take on Bruce Banner, he had to get in touch with his inner Hulk.

E! probed the raging ids of The Hulk's Bana, his costars and director Ang Lee to see why green is good, chickens are freaky and special effects aren't, actually, that important.

Did Ang and you discuss how he would bring the Hulk to life as a CGI character?
We did. We had a really good amount of time to talk about a lot of things. He did his best to share his vision. But his vision is so unique--you never really see it until the very end.

Like me, you probably remember the TV series more than the comic book. Did you try to include any of those elements?
I think there are a few kinds of elements here and there. The thing I liked about the TV show is I found it really haunting, and there's definitely a haunting tone throughout this film--especially through Nick Nolte's character [David Banner, Bruce's father]. There are a few links like that.

Any frustrations as an actor, working with the amount of CGI required to pull off the Hulk?
It's really weird. I'm the guy who plays the Hulk, but I actually had the least to do with it. I kind of got off scot-free. Most of my days on the film were the very conventional kind of drama: one or two other actors, small set. It was almost like this movie was occurring outside of my control.

It's a smart, deep film, and the fans are really nervous. Are you convinced it has commercial appeal?
I kind of live in denial. I don't buy into a lot of that stuff. I dearly hope they love it. They deserve to have high expectations. Marvel has been around for a long time for a very good reason, and the film should be good. But I think they'll be very pleased.

Kermit the Frog says it isn't easy being green. Is it?
You'll have to ask Ang and ILM [special-effects house Industrial Light & Magic]. [Laughs.]

When's the last time you got angry--really, really angry?
Really angry? Lunch was a bit late arriving today, wasn't it? I almost had a Hulk-out. I'm very well behaved until I get hungry. Then the Hulk's just about 20 seconds away. I warned Ang on the shoot. One day, he stretched the lunch break to, like, 3 o' clock. I said, "Ang, I'll let you know something. I don't cope too well without food. So, unless you want to see a really ugly side to me, you'd better not let me go hungry." So, of course, we broke for lunch at 5 o'clock every day after that.

So, you found your inner Hulk.
Oh, yeah. Very easily.