Mark Ruffalo has said he was “scared” to star in Poor Things and told director Yorgos Lanthimos he did not think he was “the right person” for the film.
The 56-year-old American actor plays ladies’ man Duncan Wedderburn in the dark comic fantasy, which also stars Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe and is released in UK cinemas on Friday.
Ruffalo spoke about the film during The Hollywood Reporter’s actors roundtable, alongside Andrew Scott and Robert Downey Jr, who also discussed the most recent films they had starred in.
Speaking about an interaction he had with director Lanthimos, Ruffalo said: “I was like, ‘Yorgos, I don’t think I’m the right person for this’.
“I tried to talk him out of it and he just laughed at me.”
Speaking about why he decided to star in the film, he added: “In the movie business, it is starting to feel like you’re a little bit in a box sometimes.
“But I had never played anything like that either.
“And I was scared. I mean, I saw his movies and I was in awe of them.
“So I was really scared. And he just laughed at me.”
He added: “It was such a great turn, and I get to do so much fun stuff in it and break all the perceptions of me, or what people want from me.”
Poor Things, co-produced by Ireland, the UK and the US, recently won an award at the Golden Globes for best motion picture musical or comedy and is nominated for a slew of other awards.
During the roundtable, Ruffalo also spoke about what it was like to act and direct following the death of his brother in 2008.
He said: “He passed away just before I was going to direct a film that I’d been working on for a long time.
“And during the course of it I was like, I don’t know if I want to go back to acting.
“I kind of feel much more comfortable here in this place.
“Just the swath of creativity that opens up to you as a director, you’re working with all the department heads, you’re working with music, you’re working with movement, you’re working with the camera.
“It just feels like a feast of creativity.
“I got a great part. The kind of part in a movie that I wanted to do, and I was like, this is gonna be my last acting gig.
“And it was The Kids Are All Right. And I was just like, f*** it, I’m gonna do whatever I want here.
“There’s no rules anymore. I don’t have to be anybody for anybody else.
“And I just kind of did what I wanted with it. And it was really freeing.”
Also in the actors roundtable, Irish actor Scott spoke about what it was like to star in Andrew Haigh-directed film All Of Us Strangers, alongside Paul Mescal, while Downey Jr discussed his role in Christopher Nolan epic Oppenheimer.