Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, humanitarian, social activist, and film producer. He made his screen debut in an episode of CBS Summer Playhouse, followed by minor film roles. He was part of the original cast of This Is Our Youth, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Following was his roles in 13 Going on 30, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, and What Doesn't Kill You. In 2010, he starred in the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth22 November 1967
CityKenosha, WI
CountryUnited States of America
I don't like to go to the gym very much if I can help it.
I don't like this idea of Method. I come from that school, but what I was taught was that it's your imagination. You do your homework, and you use your imagination.
A home life where it's so full of so many rigorous ideas about the way things should be, this word "should," I think is absolutely toxic to children. It hurts their personalities, it hurts their points of view in the world, it hurts their ability to be open and caring and curious. An element of allowance in a family, is, I think, really a positive thing.
When you're on the road, you sort of go crazy and being away from your family you get stir-crazy and lonely, so I try to keep myself involved as much as possible.
I guess the biggest lesson would be to have faith in that little part of yourself that knows what it's doing, knows what it wants, knows what you should be doing, even when all the clamour around you is telling you something else. That's the part that you want to keep alive and that's the part that people want to see when they see you on the screen.
"What is normal?" really becomes the question. What is normal, and how are we fooled into thinking it's something other than what we're doing at any given time. Every family has either a drug addict or an alcoholic or some sort of dysfunction that the family is dealing with. And I think the grace of this family is that they actually could be that far out there but also be forgiving, and be really human, and be human in front of each other without much shame.
The fact that I can make a living and support three kids and my wife doing what I love to do... who does that? That's golden. It's a very privileged thing.
There's a misperception about actors that we actually choose the roles we end up doing - it's more that we're chosen for them.
As an actor, I started using dreams more, which is not mystical or anything like that. I just found that I've been using that as a tool to give me another point of view towards the work. It's often surprising but really helpful.
Each role, I feel like takes you on a different journey based on who that character is.
When you're trying to do character work that's different from what people expect from you, you're sort of in territory that is uncharted, and you don't know how it's playing all the time.
As an actor, you want to remain vulnerable. You don't want to always have all the answers and you want to be fine doing things in the moment with your fellow actors.
I'm very nervous in the beginning and then I get in there and start doing my work and I feel more comfortable.
There's a level of trust that you have to have with somebody.