He has long since healed from his surgery, and while he still suffers from depression it really is a lifelong battle he seems to be managing his illness better than before. After a while, Frank Ruffalo's painting business went under, prompting the family to move to Virginia Beach, Virginia, when Mark was 13. He's enjoying the heights right now, but, before playing Bruce Banner/the Hulk in Hollywood's biggest franchise, he had to first experience the lowest of lows, going through things that most of us would struggle to overcome. Just saying, 'Hey, this is who I am.'" This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. For his work on stage, Ruffalo has been once nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role in a 2006 production of the dramatic play Awake and Sing!. My first reaction was that buildings don't fall down like that. And it's a blessing, man. Through a chance meeting with writer Kenneth Lonergan, Ruffalo began collaborating with him and appeared in several of his plays, including the original cast of This is Our Youth (1996), which led to Ruffalo's role as Laura Linney's character's brother in Lonergan's Academy Award-nominated 2000 film You Can Count on Me. Mark was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2001 and was left with partial facial paralysis after undergoing surgery to remove it. The Begin Again actor has had dark times before and after making it on the big screen. On Jan. 6, 2012, Adham passed away, leaving the case without a critical witness. After a year, the paralysis receded, but Ruffalo's left ear remains deaf. For the next ten months, Ruffalo went through an emotional recovery from his paralysis which involved him trying out a variety of different therapies, including acupuncture and sacral cranial therapy. "It's when you have what seems to be bad luck that actually turns into good luck later." While Mark Ruffalo was living in Los Angeles and taking classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory, he had a best friend named Michael. Since then, he's received three Oscar nominations for his performances in The Kids Are All Right, Foxcatcher, and Spotlight. if( 'moc.enilnoefiltseb' !== location.hostname.split('').reverse().join('') ) { RELATED: Here's What We Know About Mark Ruffalo And Sunrise Coigney's Private Life. It appeared to fans as if Ruffalo simply disappeared into thin air. [16][30], In 2008, Ruffalo expressed concern that gas companies were eyeing his family's land in Callicoon, New York. At the time, Mark had just graduated from high school; in several interviews, he's recalled that the family was living in a neighborhood where drugs like meth were commonly sold. [1] His father is of Italian descent, from Girifalco[3] and his mother is of French Canadian and Italian ancestry. 2022 Galvanized Media. document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', function() { } ); He didn't know where he was headed in life. Though he wanted to return to acting, his doctors strongly advised him against it. "My friends have a term, getting 'Ruffaloed,'" he told In New York. It led to speculations that he was battling alcoholism, drug addiction, or AIDS. He has broad clinical experience in the psychoanalytic treatment of mood . In the UK, acoustic neuroma is rare, affecting approximately 2 per 100,000 according to the British Acoustic Neuroma association. It might not show, but the affable Avenger is now into his 50s, and his half-century on this earth really has been the proverbial rollercoaster ride. According to The Wrap's report, Hulu is a valuable asset, with 44% of households in the United States subscribing to the service, and estimated to be worth between $19.8-27.5 billion. Also in 2014, Ruffalo received his second Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of wrestler Dave Schultz in the biographical drama Foxcatcher. "I was certain I was going to die," he revealed. All of the reasons why stars are definitely not like us. [36] The New York Times described the claim as "dubious" and stated that those "sounding the alarm", did not mention that the larvicide did not work through the central nervous system and that it has been approved by the World Health Organization. He began acting in the early 1990s and rose to prominence after appearing in Kenneth Lonergan's play This Is Our Youth and the drama film You Can Count On Me. He has explained his opinion by saying: "I don't want to turn back the hands of time to when women shuttled across state lines in the thick of night to resolve an unwanted pregnancy, in a cheap hotel room. He moved into a $600-a-month apartment with two friends and his kid brother Scott. "I had a friend who had been a longtime drug addict," Ruffalo told Rolling Stone. It wasn't until The Washington Times finally nailed the story that it went away. One evening, a gang member entered and pulled a gun, though, luckily for Ruffalo and his colleagues, the guy working the door at the time was an off-duty police officer. In that time, Ruffalo kept quiet about why he'd dropped off the map, but that didn't stop people from guessing. He began acting in the early 1990s and first gained recognition for his work in Kenneth Lonergan 's play This Is Our Youth (1998) and drama film You Can Count on Me (2000). [49][50], After completing work on the film The Last Castle, Ruffalo was diagnosed with a vestibular schwannoma, a type of brain tumor also known as an acoustic neuroma. scientific studies and medical journals. Mark Ruffalo has earned a reputation as one of Hollywood's genuine good guys. Having recovered from partial facial paralysis caused by a benign brain tumor in 2002, and still affected by the death of his brother, Scott, in a shooting in late 2008, Mr. Ruffalo is more. After a CAT scan, he received a diagnosis of acoustic neroma. "[44] In 2021, he said it was "inflammatory" and "disrespectful" to suggest Israel is committing genocide. Read on to learn the stranger-than-fiction way he learned of his condition, and why he now views the experience as a gift. As a result of the tumour, he briefly suffered a period of partial facial paralysis. He won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in a TV Movie for playing a gay writer and activist in the television drama film The Normal Heart (2015), and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his dual role as identical twins in the miniseries I Know This Much Is True (2020). "I didn't want any visitors," he later recalled. Even after the tumour was removed, the resulting paralysis of the left side of Marks face caused complications for the actor. Amazingly, the actor knew about a tumor before doctors confirmed it, having had an incredibly vivid dream about it. He was cast as the male lead for Lonergan's directorial debut in 2000, You Can Count on Me. Still, Ruffalo was unable to completely cut himself off from the Hollywood lifestyle. However, he beat the odds and after six months of paralysis, Mark was able to make very slight movements, signalling the beginning of a recovery that would still take several more months. Ruffalo also owns two apartments in New York City, one for business and another for investment. Shyamalan agreed to consider the idea, but sadly, the pitch fell through when Ruffalo's doctors asserted he was in no condition to be acting. And, technically, he did. "I made a tape for him, for when he was old enough to understand. Our content is fact checked by our senior editorial staff to reflect accuracy and ensure our readers get Ruffalo first learned of his tumor in 2000, while shooting the film You Can Count on Me. Mark Ruffalo has dealt with depression since he was a child. . He began acting in the early 1990s and first gained recognition for his work in Kenneth Lonergan's play This Is Our Youth (1998) and drama film You Can Count on Me (2000). But did you know that a health threat in the early 2000s almost ruined it all for him? Thankfully, the operation was a success and doctors were able to remove the tumour. 2008 also saw Ruffalo in Brian Goodman's What Doesn't Kill You with Ethan Hawke and Amanda Peet, which was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her work on TheThings reflects her sociological interest in the reality behind hit movies & TV shows, celebrity lifestyle, and reality TV drama. However, he did permanently lose his ability to hear in his left ear. After graduation, his family uprooted and moved to what the men's mag described as a "seedy beach community" in San Diego, though things didn't exactly work out the way his parents (a house decorator and a hair stylist) had planned. "Dying was my biggest fear.". However, several weeks after the birth of his son and with the news of his diagnosis weighing heavy on his heart, Mark opened up to his wife and underwent surgery. Luckily, they were able to remove the tumor successfully. According to theLos Angeles Times, on Dec. 8, 2008, Mark's brother, Scott, died a week after he was shot in the head in his own home. Self deprecation is the most lethal weapon in any ladykiller's arsenal. that he started to bring his anger home with him. Ruffalo has been nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right (2010), the biopic Foxcatcher (2014), and the drama Spotlight (2015). He eventually figured things out when his family moved to Los Angeles. "Be careful what bargains you make," Ruffalo quipped while speaking to the ANA. The way the world looked to me changed.". While he was still in school, friends would talk about their . When hate rises, it calls all of us to rise . Ruffalo also explained that he underwent various therapies to help alleviate the paralysis, including acupuncture, herbal therapy, massage, and other forms of alternative medicines in conjunction with his prescribed regimen. With nominations for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, Ruffalo is one of a selected few performers to be nominated for the four major entertainment awards in the US (EGOT). This can put pressure on the brain which can result in intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities". [34], In 2015, Ruffalo supported "Education Is Not a Crime" campaign among a lot of artists and intellectuals including Nazanin Boniadi, Abbas Milani, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Azar Nafisi, Omid Djalili, Eva LaRue, Mohammad Maleki (former president of the University of Tehran), and Nobel Peace laureates such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shirin Ebadi, Tawakkol Karman, Jody Williams, and Mairead Maguire, to draw attention to the Iranian government's systematic denial of university education to young Baha'is. [43], In October 2020, speaking to Mehdi Hasan, Ruffalo condemned what he called Israel's "asymmetrical warfare" against the Palestinians, stating, "There is no reason that an ally of America should not be held to the same standards as any other nation in the world." xhr.open('POST', 'https://www.google-analytics.com/collect', true); "She came in and she was white as a sheet, and she said, 'you have a mass behind your left ear that's the size of a golf ball. [58], In May 2022, Ruffalo was sued by residents of Ellenville, New York for not cleaning up a fire that broke out on the set of a car dealership that was used as a location for I Know This Much Is True. "The moment he left, I realized that death wasn't an escape, that suicide wasn't an answer."