One Mind Blowing Secret From Every MCU Movie
32. Green Steve The Chippendale Dancer - The Avengers
Arguably the single most important and potentially most difficult facet of the CGI involved in bringing The Avengers to the screen was making sure that the Hulk was as realistic as possible. This was a major character who would have a lot of screen time, and he had to look seamless.
To avoid the Jade Giant looking like a cartoon simply dropped into the Battle of New York, something that would have removed the audience from the moment entirely, the way the light caught him would have to be perfect.
As told in The Reign of Marvel Studios, in order to get some reference points for this, Green Steve was used. Green Steve was an ex-Chippendale dancer, 6' 5" with a body type as close to the Hulk as anyone was likely to find on an actual human being, so they painted him green, had him come onto the set, and act out roughly what they wanted the Hulk to do in a certain scene.
They tracked how the light moved, and the rest is history. It's something they continued to do on Age of Ultron, though with a different man they still called Green Steve, and even through to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, with Malia Arrayah performing similar duties in place of the much smaller Tatiana Maslany.