THIS MAN IS GONNA BE HUGE

SO who's the star of $140m summer blockbuster The Hulk? A glance at the poster, the merchandise, the computer game or the dinky little plastic goblins free at Burger King strongly suggests that it's a not- so-jolly green giant, a musclebound behemoth who looks like Frankenstein's monster after intensive triathlon training. A glance at the credits, though, and heading a cast of experienced hands - grizzled Sam Elliott, even-more-grizzled Nick Nolte and Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly - is a Hollywood greenhorn: Eric Bana. A tall, lithe, likeable Aussie bloke, Bana plays Bruce Banner, a repressed brainiac who transforms into an enormous mute brute when he gets agitated.
THIS MAN IS GONNA BE HUGE

SO who's the star of $140m summer blockbuster The Hulk? A glance at the poster, the merchandise, the computer game or the dinky little plastic goblins free at Burger King strongly suggests that it's a not- so-jolly green giant, a musclebound behemoth who looks like Frankenstein's monster after intensive triathlon training. A glance at the credits, though, and heading a cast of experienced hands - grizzled Sam Elliott, even-more-grizzled Nick Nolte and Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly - is a Hollywood greenhorn: Eric Bana. A tall, lithe, likeable Aussie bloke, Bana plays Bruce Banner, a repressed brainiac who transforms into an enormous mute brute when he gets agitated.
Unfortunately, being an entirely computer-generated character, the Hulk doesn't do many interviews. So while it's his ugly green mug on the lunchboxes, it's left to Bana to take the promotional strain. And with The Hulk being the latest addition to the burgeoning genre of comic book-sourced movies (after recent hits Spider-Man, Daredevil and both X-Mens), there's been a media tsunami.

"I try to roll with it because you can't change it," he sighs. "I don't do movies back-to-back, so hopefully I can talk about each of them in an enthusiastic, fresh way because I have a genuine affection for them. But there does come a point where you start to go insane. The first day of the US junket, I did 65 television interviews, which is, quite literally, a form of torture. It would have been a quick solution to the war if they'd threatened Saddam Hussein with that from day one: if you don't reveal your weapons of mass destruction, you will be subjected to a US press junket."

And one of the questions that would come up all the time: what the hell is Ang Lee - the acclaimed auteur responsible for Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - doing directing a movie based on a Stan Lee comic book?

Bana can't answer that one, of course. Nor can he definitively say why Ang Lee cast him, virtually unknown in the US despite an excellent turn in Black Hawk Down, as the bottled-up Jekyll to a lumbering CGI Hyde. "I didn't test in the traditional sense," says Bana. But it's a good bet Ang saw his debut film performance Chopper in 2001, a biopic of charismatic Aussie sociopath Mark "Chopper" Read. In the movie, Bana - already famous in his native Australia as a sketch show comedian on TV - demonstrated his range by convincingly playing a violent bear of a man with a hair-trigger temper. Bana dominated the screen; attempting to control violent impulses but all too often unleashing them with horrific results. In short, maybe Ang liked him when he was angry.

But in The Hulk, Bana never actually gets to blow his top. His Banner - all tortured angst behind brown, millpool eyes - knows he's got something dangerous inside of him but doesn't dare open up, not even to his beautiful co-worker Betty Ross (played by Connelly). How do you approach that sort of internalised performance, especially when everyone who's read the comic or seen the successful 1970s TV series is sitting in the cinema eagerly waiting for you to flip out?

"It is intense and it's gruelling," he says. "Anxiety and that level of stress is a very difficult thing to do, it's not like you can come up with tools to fake that kind of stuff. It's taxing but at the end of each day, it feels like you've done a day's work. You don't feel like you've walked through it."

But wasn't it frustrating, working up to a point of Vesuvian anger but never getting that orgasmic release?

"I'd just go and wreck my trailer," he laughs. "In a way, it helped to just stay in that realm all the time and not be allowed out of it."

And the best things about the role - apart from the inevitable profile-raising? Well, Bana got to butt heads with his acting hero Nick Nolte, who plays his unhinged father with near-feral relish. Plus, the considerable amount of CGI scenes meant days off while his green alter-ego trashed tanks, grounded helicopters and tore up half of San Francisco. Bana gratefully spent this down-time with his wife Rebecca and their two young children, who'd relocated from their Melbourne home for the duration of the shoot.

I am 56, an ex-triathlete and Green Beret, and new to bodybuilding. In 1991, I gave up triathlons after suffering a heart attack in a warm-up race for an Ironman event, and I had a second open-heart surgery in 1993. I stopped training and went from 150 pounds to more than 200 in the ensuing 12 years. With some dietary changes and workouts, I got down to 162 pounds. Finally, I made a heavy investment and put a complete free-weight gym in my basement, got a trainer and started lifting. FLEX, MUSCLE & FITNESS and Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding became my daily reading material. In the course of 12 months of six-days-per-week workouts, I gained 15 pounds of lean muscle mass, but still struggle to gain the mass and definition I hoped to achieve. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on regarding supp
lements, but I can't get a straight answer.
Is there hope for a 56-year-old to get the size, strength and definition of a 30- or 40-year-old, or have I started too late? I look good and feel great, but small gains promote the desire for more. I find the "Brute Strength" program (March-August 2005 issues) extremely valuable. Lifting heavy for size is all relative to the strength one has, and gaining strength is why following the Brute Strength workouts and the right supplement and diet plan are so important to us older guys. There are many of us who want to be the best we can be, who work out hard and want to get the looks the young guys get when we are on vacation at a beach with our young wives (my wife works out five days a week in the free-weight basement, too).
CHARLES WILSON

CITY WITHHELD

Most of the same bodybuilding principles apply to everyone, regardless of age. However, you might find "The Over-35 Club" in the January 2005 issue useful. In addition, see our "A to Z of Supplements" guide in the August issue--each supplement is rated and explained.

The temperature is set to soar along with the tension today as millions of fans ignore the summer sun and settle in a darkened room to watch the first England match.

After the dramas of Rooney's metatarsal, the Beckhams' party and rumours that the footballers' wives and girlfriends are locked in a game of competitive sleeping (after learning that sleep reduces wrinkles they are apparently trying to out-nap each other), the first game will finally begin. And it is not just the footballers who will reap the benefits of a victorious tournament.

Televisions are being sold at a rate of one every 40 seconds, sales of footballs are 226 per cent up on last year and one optimistic punter has bet pounds 200,000 on an England win.
The temperature is set to soar along with the tension today as millions of fans ignore the summer sun and settle in a darkened room to watch the first England match.

After the dramas of Rooney's metatarsal, the Beckhams' party and rumours that the footballers' wives and girlfriends are locked in a game of competitive sleeping (after learning that sleep reduces wrinkles they are apparently trying to out-nap each other), the first game will finally begin. And it is not just the footballers who will reap the benefits of a victorious tournament.

Televisions are being sold at a rate of one every 40 seconds, sales of footballs are 226 per cent up on last year and one optimistic punter has bet pounds 200,000 on an England win.

Politics might be the game they play best, but Layton Mayor Steve Curtis and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan are betting they know at least enough about high school football to predict the winner of Friday's 5A state football championship.

"I'm an avid high school football fan," said Curtis who offered a friendly, but possibly humiliating wager, with Dolan on the outcome of the title game which pits Alta against Layton at 2:30 p.m. at Rice Eccles Stadium. "I'm also a very competitive person. Tom and I have been friends, so I just asked him if he'd like to bet on the game."

No, these public servants aren't breaking any gambling laws, but they might be offending the public in a different way if their respective schools don't come through for the city leaders.
Curtis' challenge was this: If Layton prevails against top- ranked Alta, Dolan would sing the Lancer fight song -- a cappella -- at the next Layton City Council meeting wearing a Lancer jersey. If Alta wins, Curtis would entertain the Sandy City Council with the Hawks' fight song in red and black.

"I'm not a very good singer," Curtis admits. "But then, I don't expect to lose."

Asked if he knew the Lancer fight song, he said, "Well, I know the tune, but not the words. But then, Tom's the one who's got to sing it."

Dolan is equally confident in the Hawks.

"I haven't got a clue," he said when asked if he knew the words to the Alta fight song. Like Curtis, he said that won't matter once the Hawks take the field.

"I'm expecting to win," he said.

Dolan is a veteran at these friendly political wagers. He had a similar bet with Taylorsville Mayor Russ Wall last spring on the state baseball championship, which Jordan won. He said the Sandy City Council invites each team that wins a championship to a meeting where a resolution honoring them is read. That, he said, might be the perfect time for a musical number.

"It's fun for us," Dolan said. "It's fun if we win; it's fun if we lose. It's not as much fun for the players. We just agreed to make fools of ourselves to have a little fun ... I'm used to winning though."

Curtis said it's just one more way city officials can support their prep teams.

"I love the game," he said. "I love sports. It's a way of connecting with the community."

Curtis informed Layton head coach Jim Batchelor of his wager, while Dolan said Alta coach Les Hamilton wasn't aware of what was riding on the game -- beside Hawk pride, of course.

"No, I didn't tell anyone," Dolan said. "They don't need any added pressure."