Mark Ruffalo on going for broke
Actor Mark Ruffalo is a man of many talents -- as Anthony Mason discovers in our Sunday Profile:
The actor Mark Ruffalo was a championship wrestler in high school. For his role in the new film "Foxcatcher," he goes back to the mat.
Was it the most physical role he's had? "Oh yeah, it was tough," he said. "I was in a lot of pain and I hurt myself a lot."
"Foxcatcher" follows the tragic true story of wrestling's Schulz Brothers, Dave (played by Ruffalo) and Mark (played by Channing Tatum), both Olympic champions, who fall under the eerie influence of millionaire John duPont (played by Steve Carell).
N.Y. Film Festival review: "Foxcatcher" a winner
Ruffalo wrestled all through high school before giving it up for acting in his senior year.
"My mom was a hairdresser," he said. "My aunt was a hairdresser. My brother was a hairdresser. My sisters are hairdressers."
"So what happened to you?" asked Mason.
"I don't know. I went way off the tracks!" he laughed.
On screen he's become known for his extraordinary range -- playing a disgraced music executive in "Begin Again" ...
... a gay activist in "The Normal Heart" ...
... a hulking superhero in "The Avengers."
But it all started slowly for Ruffalo, who studied acting at the Stella Adler School in Los Angeles.
"So how long were you here for?" asked Mason.
"So it was a three-year program and I ended up staying for six years," Ruffalo laughed. "I was working on my craft, man!"
And for a long time it was bartending that actually paid the bills.
"I literally could go right back to setting up this bar," he said on a return visit to L.A.'s Good Luck Bar, one of his many gigs -- and where he even had a drink named after him.
"I had a drink that I sort of became famous for, and they started calling it a Markarita!"
"And all these casting directors were like, 'Where did you come from?'" said Ruffalo. "I'm like, 'What are you talking about? I've been under your noses for the past 10 years! Where have you been?'"
But just as the things were breaking Ruffalo's way, doctors discovered a mass in his brain -- a tumor.
"Yeah, it was scary," he said.
"And you hadn't been married that long, and you had a kid."
"She was pregnant. She was due. Bascially I found out, then our baby was born two weeks later, our son Keen."
But he didn't tell his wife, Sunrise. "No. I didn't know how to tell her without making her afraid. And so I just waited until after."
"So you were sitting on this in your head for a month?"
"Honestly, I thought I was going to die. And so when my son was being born, it was very loaded."
The tumor was benign, but the surgery to remove it left one side of his face paralyzed.
"You didn't know how long it was going to last?" asked Mason.
"No, and it lasted a long time. It lasted to the point where they were saying, 'You're probably not going to get your face back."
Then one day, after almost a year, "I was looking in the mirror, I was trying to move my face, just a little -- 'Baby! Baby, I can move my face! It's unbelievable!' you know? And I showed her. 'Look! Look!' And she just burst into tears. And we both burst into tears. And then it just slowly started to come back."
And slowly, Mark Ruffalo the actor came back -- winning roles in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Min," "13 Going on 30," and "Collateral."
His success in L.A. was beginning to rival that of his younger brother, Scott, who had become a popular hair stylist in Beverly Hills.
"For the longest time I was Scott Ruffalo's brother," said Mark. "I mean, he was the mayor of Beverly Hills. He was just so beloved there."
Then, in 2008, Scott Ruffalo was found shot in the back of the head. The case was never solved.
"They made a last kind of scrambled effort to solve it," said Ruffalo. "And they ended up just closing it as a homicide."
"How did you feel about that?" asked Mason.
"You know, it'll be the great mystery of my life."
"How do you make peace with a mystery like that?"
"The way you make peace with every mystery -- you just live alongside it."
Grieving the loss of his brother, Ruffalo left L.A., and moved to a farm in upstate New York with his wife and their three kids. He was considering a career change when he took a part in "The Kids Are All Right," as a sperm donor to two lesbian parents, played by Julianne Moore and Annette Bening.
"That was gonna be my last thing," Ruffalo said. "I didn't know if I would ever act again. I was like, 'You know what? I'm done with this part of my life for a while.' And I knew going in that that was going to be what it was. And I had such a great time.
"And then all of a sudden that movie became what it became."
And he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
He told Mason he modeled his character in "The Kids Are All Right" on his brother. "Yeah. Yeah, 'cause he was this incredibly beautiful, sexy, vibrant, fun-loving guy. He devoured life, you know."
"So that was a gift to him, and to you, in a way," Mason said.
"Yeah. And it was a way for me to say thank you to him."
Today at 46 Mark Ruffalo is devouring acting again.
"I realized I was holding back a little bit, for a long time, so I could always say, 'Well, I didn't really give it everything' to myself," he said.
And now? "Now, I'm just like, 'Go for broke, man! This is it. You know, this is it."
To watch a trailer for "Foxcatcher," click on the video player below.
For more info:
- "Foxcatcher" (Official site)
- "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" (Official site)
- Stella Adler Academy of Acting & Theatre, Los Angeles
- Good Luck Bar, Los Angeles