The movie Mark Ruffalo thought he was going to be fired from: “Oh, he hates me”
Mark Ruffalo may be a highly acclaimed actor, but the prolific movie star once believed one of his performances was so poor that he would be sacked altogether and replaced.
Ruffalo is not an actor that many film buffs would expect to be associated with the words “bad acting”. No matter his role, whether it be the Hulk or the pompous boob of Poor Things, Ruffalo brings competence to every performance he gives. But his role in Zodiac stands out for the actor as perhaps the one portrayal that was on a knife-edge, and least of all because of the troubling workload and worrying disposition of the director David Fincher.
In Zodiac, Ruffalo portrays Inspector Dave Toschi, who worked on the unsolved serial murders that the film dramatises. During an interview with GQ, Ruffalo detailed shooting a scene opposite Gyllenhaal, where Fincher’s behaviour made him assume he wasn’t just in trouble but was about to lose his job. Fincher has a meticulous directing style that involves countless takes of seemingly monotonous scenes that actually contain a ton of meaning.
Fincher reportedly erased a full shoot day of footage because he wanted a do-over, and made many sudden decisions like this, which would be worrisome for any actor. Fincher also reportedly insisted on shooting many scenes in wide shots, which proved to be difficult because if anything he didn’t like occurred in the background, the scene would have to be restarted.
“He was so exacting and everyone had to hit their peak at the same time,” Ruffalo recalled about working with Fincher. “If one person was lagging, he shot it again.”
Ruffalo recalled how Fincher kept extending the shooting of a scene at a restaurant between himself and Gyllenhaal. “We would shoot a day and then scrap it,” Ruffalo explained. “At first, I was like, ‘Oh, he hates me. He thinks I suck. Why are we doing 45 takes? It’s mostly me in the scene”.
Ruffalo soon began to think he was going to be fired from the set when Fincher approached him after telling the actor to redo the scene over and over again. “I was like, ‘Well, you did your best, you’re still gonna get paid.’”
Perhaps using those words as some kind of salve, Ruffalo was in fact spared the chop. Instead, despite what Ruffalo may have been picking up, the director seemed to enjoy his work. This was a notion doubled down on in 2024 when Ruffalo, during the ceremony for receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was celebrated by Fincher as one of the finest actors of his generation.
Ruffalo’s wife, Sunrise, is always helping to ease his anxiety that comes from the trauma of his past firing. Ruffalo reportedly had fears arise after being cast in the MCU while acting in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things. Sunrise apparently informed Ruffalo that there usually isn’t a role that he doesn’t worry he will lose. And, he not only keeps his gigs but delivers performances that are celebrated by critics and audiences alike.
Ruffalo’s paranoia about losing his acting gigs doesn’t come from nowhere. In 1993, just a little over a week before the play was going to open, Ruffalo was let go from his role in a rendition of Control Freaks. He is unsure as to why he was canned from the play, but it has caused recurring fears in Ruffalo that this unfortunate situation will happen to him again. However, it never happens because Ruffalo is a top-notch performer, and his four Oscar nominations prove it.
