What was the one thing Hammer knew he had to do to make the Lone Ranger his own?
"The thing that kind of made our Lone Ranger specifically ours was his human element," said Hammer. "In the original television show you had a hero.
"America wanted a hero that they could just put on television and kind of zone out and watch a guy be a good guy," said Hammer. "But that doesn't work if you want to watch a two-hour movie nowadays -- we have a much more discerning audience. So we had to give him a struggle. He's got the same moral compass that the original Lone Ranger has, but he deals with it in a more human way. You see him struggle and sometimes you see him lose."
Winning a high-profile role like "The Lone Ranger" should nail Hammer's spot as a major player in Hollywood.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has helped a lot of actors achieve a certain status in show biz.
"He's going to be an enormous star. He's made a lot of very excellent choices in things that he's picked to do, and the 'The Lone Ranger' makes him a superstar, I think," said Bruckheimer.
"Hey man, I'm just having fun playing," said Hammer. "I'm ambivalent as to what happens. I'm just enjoying it. I just like to keep working."
Some of the stunts look like Hammer. Did he do any of his own stunt work?
"You can judge it for yourself: Any time you see a stunt happen with any of the actors and if there's a hand in front of their face or their back is turned. That's not them," said Hammer. "But if you can see our face in it, you see when we hit the ground, our look of pain or anything like that, then that's us."
"The Lone Ranger" is rated PG-13 and is in theaters Wednesday.
Disney is the parent company of ABC7.
