Mark Ruffalo interview: Oscars 2011
"Just think,” a friend of Mark Ruffalo’s told him excitedly, after he’d been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his part in The Kids Are All Right. “You’ll never be a B-list actor again!”
There may well be something in this. After more than 20 years of being one of those recognisable faces whose name hovers elusively on the tip of people’s tongues, life may be about to change for Mark Ruffalo.
Yet in many ways getting an Oscar nomination is one of the least interesting things to happen to him. Not when you put it alongside the brain tumour, the paralysis and the family tragedy that led him to quit Hollywood. And then, when there seemed to be tranquillity in his life, he found himself accused of being a terrorist.
At one point in our conversation, Ruffalo refers to his having been scarred by experience. This isn’t said bitterly, or with any self-pity; it’s just that he’s led a pretty bizarre life and it’s left its mark.
On the outside, though, you’d never guess anything had gone amiss. At 43, his tousled black hair may have a few grey sprigs, but his face hasn’t lost its youthfulness and nor has his manner. Sitting in Claridges restaurant dressed in a sweatshirt, forking slices of papaya into his mouth, he looks like he belongs on a different planet to the rest of the guests.
Read more: Mark Ruffalo interview: Oscars 2011
