Behind-The-Scenes Facts From The First Avengers Movie That Demand A Rewatch

One of the best scenes in The Avengers features Scarlet Johansson's Black Widow being interrogated by some lowlife thugs. The scene unfolds with her receiving a phone call from Agent Phil Coulson, calling her in from the field. She then proceeds to beat the snot out of every one of the bad guys while being tied to a chair, and it's the perfect introduction for her character in the film.

As it happens, that scene was originally much different in the script. According to Zak Penn, who wrote an early draft of The Avengers, the original concept saw Hawkeye being interrogated instead of Black Widow. Director Joss Whedon was the one who came onto the project and changed the scene (and many others), and it would be difficult to find many fans of the film who thought he made the wrong move. While an interrogation scene with Hawkeye would likely have worked, it's hard to imagine anyone but Black Widow carrying this scene.

If you know anything about fight choreography, you likely know that it's a carefully orchestrated series of moves and maneuvers designed to look as if the combatants are hitting each other even though they actually refrain from contact. After all, it's hard to make a movie if one or more of your actors get the snot beat out of them in every scene. Despite this, some actors have asked their co-stars to hit them "for real" to make a scene look as good as it possibly can.

Sylvester Stallone famously did this while filming Rocky IV, and when Dolph Lundgren hit him, Stallone had to be taken to the hospital because he nearly died. It's risky, and while you might think more actors would know Stallone's story, Tom Hiddleston wanted to give it a try. While filming The Avengers, he asked Chris Hemsworth to punch him in the face, and his co-star complied. When fist met face, Hiddleston immediately regretted his decision, which he explained to CinemaBlend:

There was actually a scene in Avengers 1, the first Avengers movie, where Thor had to strike Loki across the face and I was wearing the horns, which weigh about 30 lbs, and I couldn't really sell the hit, the smack. So I just said to Chris, "I think you should just hit me in the face." It's a terrible idea, and I went down like a stone. I suppose on stage when you're doing a fight, you have to do it every night for 100 odd performances. I think if I was being hit in the face by Chris Hemsworth day after day, I don't know if I would be able to manage that. It wouldn't be sustainable.

While you'd think that someone appearing in a superhero movie would be concerned about adding any unnecessary calories, Robert Downey Jr. doesn't share those concerns. While filming The Avengers, he hid food all over the set - which, it turns out, is not uncommon for RDJ. In a live interview with HuffPost for the movie The Judge, his castmates claimed he continues the practice outside the MCU.

In the interview, Vincent D'Onofrio spoke about it, saying, "Downey does hide food all over [the] set." He added, "I'm not going to tell you why. But he does. It makes perfect sense."

He's apparently well-known for doing this while he's working, and it's said that his directors don't mind because it often adds some comic relief to the long hours of filming. In some scenes in The Avengers when he's eating food, it's from his own stash. For example, in one scene, he's eating blueberries, and even offers one to Cap. Those blueberries were from his stash, and the line wasn't in the script... it was just RDJ being RDJ.

From 1978-1982, The Incredible Hulk was a dominating force on American televisions, and the man who gave life to a completely non-CGI Hulk was Lou Ferrigno. Since playing the character, Ferrigno has lent his talents to the Hulk movies in a variety of ways. He played a security guard in the MCU's The Incredible Hulk in 2008, and he returned for The Avengers - but not in an on-screen capacity.

Ferrigno came on to work with sound editor Christopher Boyes to lend his voice to the Hulk's roar. Ferrigno didn't actually voice the Hulk on the television show, so this was a bit different from his original work. Still, it wasn't the first time he voiced the Hulk in one way or another, having lent his vocal talents to the character in Ang Lee's 2003 movie and again in 2008.

Boyes explained the creation of the roar: "Initially, for Hulk, I started using all sorts of animal vocals and tried to create this larger-than-life, territorial rage... And so the feedback coming back from Joss [Whedon] was that it was too much of a monster, too much of a creature. He really wanted to lead with the notion that this is a superhuman, but human in rage." The final sound "turned out to be [a combination of] Mark Ruffalo, some Lou Ferrigno, and a little bit of me and two people from New Zealand. So I led with that."

Before 2012's Marvel's The Avengers, the MCU featured Ed Norton as Bruce Banner/the Hulk, but the role was recast for the team-up movie. There are several reasons for the cast change, but putting those aside, Mark Ruffalo wasn't sure he could play a role in such a high-profile ensemble film. While he was on the fence, Robert Downey Jr. knew he was the right man for the job. The two actors worked together on Zodiac, and RDJ wasn't hearing any of his pal's trepidation. Ruffalo recounted how Downey got involved and helped him change his mind:

I was scared. I didn't know what I could add to what I already thought had been done so well before me. I'd only been doing indie movies up 'til that point. So I was like, "I don't know if I'm the right person for this." And Joss Whedon's like, "Yeah, you are the right person." And then I got a call from Downey, it must've made it to him that I was hemming and hawing, and he just simply said, "Ruffalo, let's go. We got this," in true Iron Man fashion. And then after that, I was like, "I guess I have to do it."

At the end of The Avengers, Iron Man is roused back to consciousness by the Hulk, and not long after he comes to, he mentions a shawarma place he saw nearby. Cut to the end of the movie, and a post-credits scene shows the Avengers sitting around a table eating some shawarma. It's a funny little throwaway scene, and it had an impact. Shawarma sales went through the roof after the movie came out - but the scene itself didn't even exist until after the film's premiere.

The movie was finished and everyone had gone their separate ways, but as Joss Whedon noted, everyone would be together for the premiere. The cast came back together, and they filmed the scene long after the movie had wrapped. By the time they filmed it, Chris Evans had grown facial hair for another role, which is why he's not eating - he has some prosthetics covering his beard. Once the scene was completed, it was added to the end of the movie, and shawarma restaurants got a nice boost in sales.