Mark Ruffalo has joked Avengers fans' "exuberant passion" was "very, very, brutal" when he was unveiled as The Hulk.

The actor portrays Bruce Banner and his huge green alter ego in the new film Avengers Assemble. It is the first time he has taken on the role and he was thrilled when he learnt he'd secured it.

Those joyous feelings soon disappeared when he visited the internet to see what superhero fans made of the casting.

"I was overcome by a moment of very poor judgement early on by going online and seeing the response to me stepping in to be the new Banner," he told Cover Media. "I won't do that again. It wasn't glowing and I found the fans' exuberant passion to be very, very, brutal. I hope we've amended that."

New movie techniques meant Mark could perform as muscle-bound The Hulk as well as Bruce, which he found exciting. He had to wear a motion capture suit though, which he was less impressed by.

"It was motion capture, yes there was the element of wearing a leotard that reduced me to a Chinese chequer board," he laughed. "Other than that it was very involved it was a very, very intensive process but I was by myself most of the time - which was lonely - in a leotard, that makes all the wrong places look big and all the right places look small."

Avengers Assemble sees Iron Man, Black Widow, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk and Hawkeye team up to help save the world. It also stars Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner.

The movie is out in the UK on April 26.