Kevin Durand wants to tell you something, brother.
The Canadian actor was a guest on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum where he discussed gaining weight for a role. Durand shared that he was cast as Hulk Hogan in Killing Gawker, the film about Hulk Hogan’s leaked sex tape that led to the website being sued and filing for bankruptcy.
“I went up to 295 pounds because I was going to play Hulk Hogan in this [movie]. It was a great, great script, it had a great cast,” Durand explained. “The director, Seth Gordon, pulled out to do something else, which was a real bummer because I’d spent 11 months putting the weight on and figuring out [Hogan’s] idiosyncrasies.
“I had it down — I spent every morning in my gym with these Hulk Hogan documentaries on. One of them I almost have completely memorized, [and I’d practice] idiosyncratically the timbre of the voice,” Durand added.
Rosenbaum asked for an impression, but Durand said it’d been a while since he’d had it perfected. He noted that it was “less Hulk Hogan and more Terry Bollea,” before switching to the voice, which got a great reaction from Rosenbaum.
Kevin Durand highlights how he approached the role
“I figured this thing out and I had studied his spine, because his spine was so severely damaged. He had gone through 17, uh, back surgeries, and when you look at the base of his spine [and] how it interacts with his hips, I don’t know how he’s walking. So if you really look at him, he’s completely crooked,” Durand said. “Such an amazing character, and I was — yeah, they pulled out [of the movie].”
Durand said there was nothing more he wanted than to play ‘Terry’ in the movie. He compared the scale of Killing Gawker to the other Hulk Hogan movie, the now-canceled Pandemonium with Chris Hemsworth, noting that Gawker was about a specific moment in time.
Durand would still love the opportunity to play Hogan
“It was a great script. It’s still out there. I don’t know what’s happening with it,” Durand explained.
Durand says Gordon explained why he dropped out to work on a project for Netflix, and doesn’t blame him for dropping out.
“Apparently, a lot of A-listers wanted to play [Hogan] and then when I walked in, I went in going, ‘Let’s talk about the psychological ramifications of what he’s f*cking going through right now,’ because this is when the sex tape,” Kevin Durand explained. “The whole thing is about the sex tape [leaking and getting published] and taking Gawker down with Peter Thiel. Matt Bomer was going to play Peter Thiel, it was phenomenal.”
“I am heartbroken, but maybe it will come back. Who knows,” he added. “It’s older Hogan, so I’m still a tiny bit younger than [Hogan was during the Gawker trial].
Are any Hulk Hogan movies in production?
Multiple actors have been rumored to be in consideration for the Hulk Hogan role, including Ben Affleck and Stranger Things’ David Harbour. In August 2024, it was reported that Affleck and Matt Damon acquired the rights to Killing Gawker through their production company. Gus Van Sant was reportedly in line to direct the movie, which currently does not have a release date. No further developments on the project have been reported since the news of Affleck and Damon coming on board.
Pandemonium director Todd Phillips said he was no longer moving forward with that film in August 2024. Hogan later claimed in November 2024 that a “missed payment” led to the whole project being scrapped.
As for Seth Gordon, his latest project is Back in Action for Netflix. Gordon wrote, directed and produced the spy comedy film starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. Back In Action was released on Netflix on January 17.
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