Mark Ruffalo
"A Real HULK of a Performance"
In the last decade, Mark Ruffalo has considerably heightened his profile in the world of Hollywood film having appeared in everything from romantic comedies like 13 Going On 30, Just Like Heaven, and Rumor Has It to dramas like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind to thrillers like Zodiac and Shutter Island.
Now the 42 year-old actor plays his strangest role to date, as Paul, a sperm donor to lesbian parents, in the independent comedy/drama The Kids Are All Right. He shared with us what he thought of the idea of playing one.
“It’s great, at $90 a pop, I wish I had known about that when I was young, struggling, starving actor,” Ruffalo says, “They didn’t have a sperm bank in the Latino neighborhood I was living at though.”
We asked Ruffalo if he himself personally knew of any sperm donors.
“No, not that I know of,” Mark answers, “[Co-writer] Stuart [Blumberg] was pretty much the first person that I knew of that I met who actually has done that. I talked to him. It pretty much came out of his experience. The forms that you have to fill out, they want like successful, they want somebody who they can sell the sperm with. So I just talked to him and he gave me what I thought I needed to know. Most of it just comes second nature.”
Mark explained to us how he embodied playing a total stranger, who fathered two children, coming into their lives for the first time.
“Well, I just kind of imagined what it would be like if I had two kids,” Ruffalo says, “I had the script as a guide. A lot of it’s implied in the script, so that gave me a lot to work with. The kids I was working with are easily accessible and lovable kids and young people. I have my own kids, so I understand how deeply the thought of your offspring dives into your heart and that’s pretty
Mark Ruffalo
"A Real HULK of a Performance"
“We didn’t know each other,” he adds, “We were sort of thrown together because of that and because they’re such good actors, that really worked for this movie. The getting to know each other process was happening as we were shooting the movie between takes. We were having similar conversations between takes, so the nature of it was captured in the basic setup of it.”
Ruffalo shared with us what made him interested in the film’s script.
“I think that’s a tricky part to play,” Mark answers, “You can fall off on either side. It could be arch or it could be too silly or it could be a buffoon. As an actor, it’s an interesting sort of acting problem going on there. I like this kind of classic American iconoclastic character of the Peter Pan bachelor that we all want to love and want to be.”
“He seems to have mastered life to some degree and gets off fairly easily, who loses himself in his kids,” he continues, “I thought that’s a really interesting take on that. It’s infused with humor, which makes it all the more exciting to do and I just thought it was a really well-written script.”
In the film, there is a scene when his character Paul tries to do a skateboarding stunt with his would-be offspring Laser, played by Josh Hutcherson. We asked Mark if he himself was into skateboarding.
“I was a skateboarder and a surfer and I did a lot of those extreme sort of things,” he shares, “I would take off in some insanely impossible wave or try to skate down some crazy vertical half-pipe or something or try to drop in on that. I totally understand that impetus for those big experiences. I like the thrill, the jolt that you get from them and there was a lot of stupid things that we definitely did.”
“And watching that kid, I’ve seen kids do
Mark Ruffalo
"A Real HULK of a Performance"
In the film, Ruffalo’s character Paul attempts to seduce one of the mothers of his offspring, Jules, played by Julianne Moore. He explained the methods behind Paul’s seeming madness.
“I think Paul thinks he’s half a lesbian already,” Mark says, laughing, “He’s got one foot in the door, so to speak. He does have a kid with her and I think he is immediately in some way attracted to her. I think he does have that very macho thing. It’s just a little thing for her and I’m going to flip her back. He does think we can make this work and I think it offers a lot of fantasies for him that would satisfy things for him.”
Mark was asked to explain the whole “half-a-lesbian” remark.
“Well, what do women think when they look at us?” Ruffalo replies, “He likes women, he likes the way they do it. I think it’s just more of a joke. I think it’s a good line into somebody that says, ‘But I’m a lesbian.’ I’m like, ‘But I’m half a lesbian.’”
Ruffalo was also asked to explain his seducing of a lesbian while having a girlfriend and another woman on the side.
“I think he’s a guy who lives his life purely for his own pleasure until those kids,” he explains, “And I think that character, Tanya’s, is one of many dalliances that he participates in and enjoys. He might
Mark Ruffalo
"A Real HULK of a Performance"
Mark gave us his rationale for why Paul ends up breaking off his relationship with his girlfriend to be with Jules.
“Because I think he thinks he’s going to have this family,” he says, “He has this fantasy that he’s going to have this family and it’s going to change his life and I’m getting old now. It’s sad because that girl probably has much more to offer him and who knows, maybe he could talk her into coming back.”
“But I think he’s a guy who just can’t connect to people that way,” Ruffalo continues, “He never has. Maybe in his youth, maybe when he was young, he had his heartbroken in one way that says, ‘I’m not going back to her.’”
Ruffalo says one of the things he loved about The Kids Are All Right is how the film does not stray into the cliché of the son seeking the absentee male role model in his life.
“I loved that it doesn’t wear its heart on his sleeve and that it’s not haranguing anybody with ideology or political message really,” Mark says, “Because of that, it’s an incredible, powerful, uniting film, I think. I think politics, ultimately, part of what’s built into them is something very divisive in nature. It pulls us apart from each other. Great filmmaking, storytelling, brings us together. I think the movie, because it’s something that’s really personal to Lisa Cholodenko, our director, and her relationship, and Stuart’s own experiences, it’s just told in a really honest way.”
“It transcends two long-married lesbians and their kid that is looking for the sperm donor.” he adds, “And it’s a story about a couple and a family that’s really been together for a long time and are changing and teenage
Mark Ruffalo
"A Real HULK of a Performance"
We pointed out to Mark how bold the film’s concept was.
“I think that’s Lisa,” Ruffalo notes, “I think that’s inherently who she’s in as an artist. I don’t think she approaches it as a dare to herself. I think she makes movies about people who have a lot of faces, who have a lot of conflicts, things going on inside them, and who go on these little gigantic journeys. Yeah, I think it is brave today to do that. It takes a real discipline to do that.”
Ruffalo shared with us his personal idea of what he thinks happens to Paul after the film ends.
“He’s going to go out and buy a minivan,” Mark replies, “I’d like to think that those kids will be a part of his life. I think that he’s been spanked in a way. I think his behavior has been displayed to him in a way that is really painful to him and in a way that he gets the pain that he could cause other people. He’s never really understood and yeah, like I said, I think he goes out and buys a minivan. The next time he shows up, he honks outside and there’s a minivan.”
We asked Mark if a playboy character like Paul would be one to engender a sympathetic response from the film’s audience.
“Hey, man, if some dude comes over to my house and slept with my wife, I would kick his ass,” Ruffalo says, “I don’t think he was treated unfairly. I totally understand her response. But I do have sympathy for him anyway. In some ways, he’s a child himself. He hurt people, but he hasn’t really hurt people. He’s helped people to grow. I don’t think you can hold someone like him, a child, responsible for something that’s outside
Mark Ruffalo
"A Real HULK of a Performance"
“I love the guy,” he continues, “I’ve known guys like him. My wife and I knew a famous Hollywood bachelor who really, from the outside, looked like he had it all. He’s in his seventies, he’s got the hot 20 year old model still hanging around him, his walls is covered with this beautiful modern art, he drives this lime green, old school, ’60′s Mercedes. But, on his deathbed, he said the one thing I really had made was a family to share all this with.”
Finally, we asked Ruffalo what film he had currently in the works.
“I don’t know,” Mark replies, “I really love directing. I really love to move back into that. I’m working on a couple of scripts, developing a couple of things that I have my eye on. I’m looking for something really special to drag me away from my family at this moment in time. I’m taking a year off and having really enjoyed them, I’m having a really hard time leaving them.”
