Woody Harrelson hypnotised Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo so all he could see was green

Forget rose-tinted glasses, Now You See Me star Woody Harrelson hypnotised cast mate Mark Ruffalo so that all he could see was green.

It couldn’t be more apt for the Hulk star really, could it?

Harrelson learnt the skill from mentalist and hypnotist Keith Barry, who was his consultant for the first magical heist-themed film. Barry returned as the lead consultant for all of the actors for the upcoming sequel and said Woody’s “brilliant” at putting what he’s learnt into practice. By all accounts he isn’t one to back down from a challenge either.

“Mark Ruffalo challenged Woody to hypnotise him in a bar in New Orleans and I’m sitting there going, this’ll be interesting,” said Barry, who returns to ITV this year for the second series of You’re Back in the Room with Phillip Schofield. “He hypnotised Mark. And I can tell whether someone’s acting or not – pupil dilation etc – I’m looking for a lot of signals. Because Mark is an actor, I wondered if he’d play along, but he didn’t. He went under.

“Woody didn’t know what to do, so he said, you can only see the colour green. Mark woke up and freaked out because everything appeared green to him. I’ve created a bit of a beast there I think. Even in London, we’ve been places and all of a sudden he’s hypnotising waitresses. I’m like, 'Jesus Woody sit down'. But it’s fun, a lot of fun.”

Barry says all of the cast – which includes Daniel Radcliffe for the sequel – are very impressive. “I’m not just saying that to be PC.”

“Dave Franco, I could put him up there with the best card throwers in the world,” Barry said. “He could take a card and he could fire it over there and stick it into an apple. He can fire it a long way now. If he kept training at it he could definitely go on to break a Guinness record or something, he’s that good.”