Q&A; WITH HULK HOGAN : Say What You Will, He Fills Out a Tutu

Fooling around with a well-known brand-name product is always risky business--but Hulk Hogan isn’t worried.

Five-time world heavyweight champion of the World Wrestling Federation, the 40-year-old Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) awaits Friday’s opening of his third feature film--New Line Cinema’s “Mr. Nanny,� about a down-on-his-luck wrestler charged with taking care of a pair of motherless youngsters. For the first time, Hogan bills himself as “Terry ‘Hulk’ Hogan.�

The same Terry “Hulk� Hogan goes into production in January on 20 hours of a syndicated series, “Thunder in Paradise,� playing an ex-Navy SEAL named Hurricane Spencer . If the show’s a hit, he’s considering changing his billing to “Terry ‘Hulk Hurricane’ Hogan.�

That was one of the topics Hogan, 6-foot-6 and 285 pounds, discussed this week during an interview at a New York hotel.

Question: There are pictures of you in a tutu on “Mr. Nanny� posters plastered on buses all over New York. How does that make you feel?

Answer: I wasn’t sure at first that that was the right marketing strategy, but I’m glad they went for it. The only downside is with the hard-core wrestling fans. I read all those wrestling magazines, because I’m still a big fan. And I think it insulted the heck out of those hard-core fans. Their reaction is “How could you do this?� Like: “You gave up wrestling for this?� They don’t want to understand what I’m trying to do.

*

Q: What’s the difference between wearing a tutu and wearing wrestling tights?

A: A tutu crosses the line. You drop the last straw of your masculinity that you’ve been hanging on to. But I knew it would work. You’ve got the big, stereotypical guy with the tan body, the yellow tights--this sweaty bald-headed maniac--in a tutu. People’s reactions were off the Richter scale.

*

Q: Hulk Hogan is an established brand name. Why change your billing to Terry “Hulk� Hogan?

A: After the last 15 years of yelling and screaming as Hulk Hogan, I was getting stereotyped as a wrestler. People hear “Hulk Hogan� and think of wrestling. I figured changing it would throw people off track a little. It might make them think this isn’t a wrestling movie. Which it isn’t.

*

Q: How did you choose this script?

A: Actually, I came up with the story. I was on the set for “Suburban Commando� and they came to me with all of these treatments. I had just seen “Home Alone� and I thought about reversing the scenario: You’ve got Hulk Hogan, ex-athlete, now supposedly the greatest bodyguard ever--and he’s turned into a baby-sitter for these two mean kids.

*

Q: What kinds of films do you want to make after this?

A: I’d like to be the John Wayne of the ‘90s. Not in terms of being the macho guy, but as a solid male leading character. Making an action-adventure comedy that kids can see with their families is a natural extension of what I did in wrestling.

*

Q: Who’s your competition for roles?

A: If “Mr. Nanny� does what I think it will, then maybe the big studios will take a chance on me. Then I don’t know if my competition would be Arnold, or Bruce Willis, or whoever. But I’m ready to compete. I’ve been like a little dog sitting on the porch. Now I’d like a chance to run with the big dogs.

*

Q: What’s your best feature?

A: It would have to be something that comes out once you get to know me, a genuine quality I have when you get to know who Terry is.

*

Q: No, I mean, when you look in the mirror and you’re stripped down to your trunks, what do you see as your best feature?

A: You mean in terms of ego and physical prowess? My arms are my best feature.

*

Q: What will it be like for the first young man who comes to your door to date your daughter? (Hogan and his wife, who live in Clearwater, Fla., have a daughter, 5, and a son, 3.)

A: I’ve thought about that. I think a good wrestling lesson in the front yard. Perhaps a body-slam to the concrete. No, really, all you can do is give your kids all the guidance you can and hope they’ll make the right decision.

*

Q: You’ve got a while before you need to worry.

A: I don’t know. She’s only 5 and she already has her ears pierced and likes to wear makeup. It drives me crazy.

*

Q: Who’s the wrestler with the weirdest gimmick you ever saw?

A: A guy who called himself the Missing Link. His head was shaved, except for this little squirrel tail on the back, which he’d grab like a handle when he’d head-butt you. And his head was painted green.

*

Q: You were the center of allegations a couple of years back regarding drugs and steroid use. How did that affect you?

A: That was a tremendous hit my career took. You have to understand the situation: Prior to 1966, steroids were legal. Growing up in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, there was a lot of peer pressure. Everybody was doing it. Me being at the top of my profession, they picked Hulk out and said, “You represent the whole world; you’re a role model.� But I got through it. A lot of people thought it was just Hulk doing it; now they realize the whole sports world in the ‘80s was doing it. I survived it and I’m going to be around for a while.

*

Q: You used to be a wrestler who occasionally acted in movies. At this point, are you an actor who occasionally wrestles?

A: I don’t know if that’s fair, but it’s close. I wrestled in Japan last week; the door is always open to the WWF if I want. My No. 1 priority now is my wife and kids; the hard days of 300 days a year on the road, with 500- and 600-mile car trips between towns, were all behind me before the kids came along. I’m so well-established now that I can afford myself the luxury of plugging myself back into the wrestling vehicle when I want to. I’m really pursuing the movie thing; between promoting this movie and an album I made, and then starting production on the TV show in January, I won’t have time to wrestle again until next June. But wrestling gives me a solid base that I never want to lose. So am I an actor who wrestles or a wrestler who acts? Either way it works.

*

Q: You were part of the movement that got wrestling reclassified as sports entertainment, rather than sports. And you’ve said that wrestling is like “the world’s greatest improv.� Doesn’t that imply that the result is known before you start a match?

A: Look, we used to insult people’s intelligence and say, “No, it’s not fake so shut up or I’ll beat you up.� What I started doing was playing to the audience. And you always do more when the crowd reacts--just like Eric Clapton will play his guitar a little louder and harder when the audience is standing up cheering. We’ve got some of the greatest athletes in the world--and some of the greatest actors. Is it fake? Well, you can get hurt every night, so I don’t think so.