mark ruffalo phd

Mark L. Ruffalo, MSW, DPsa

Mark L. Ruffalo, MSW, DPsa, is a psychotherapist in private practice in Tampa, Florida, and serves as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and Adjunct Instructor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. He has broad clinical experience in the psychoanalytic treatment of mood disorders, personality disorders, and psychosomatic illness, and has particular interest in the psychotherapy of schizophrenia.

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This course covers the diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders. Personality disorders represent a complex and often misunderstood category within the field of mental health. These conditions, characterized by enduring patterns of cognition, emotion, and behavior, can significantly impact an individual's life, relationships, and overall well-being. Understanding personality disorders is crucial for mental health professionals.

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Mark Ruffalo discusses narcissistic personality with Dr. Frank Yeomans, a world leader in the psychotherapy of personality disorders.

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Mark L. Ruffalo, MSW, DPsa Editor in Chief,  The Carlat Psychotherapy Report . Psychotherapist in private practice in Tampa, Florida. Instructor of Psychiatry at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and Adjunct Instructor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Ruffalo has no financial relationships with companies related to this material.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy, including transference-focused psychotherapy, offers a valuable approach to understanding and treating borderline personality disorder, backed by strong evidence, making it a significant treatment option.

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Mark Ruffalo on 'All the Light We Cannot See': 'It's About Humanity'

Watch: the cast of the golden globe-nominated limited series joined janice min for a special fyc event featuring a q&a and screening.

The cast of Golden Globes -nominated limited series All the Light We Cannot See , adapted from Anthony Doerr ’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, came together Dec. 3 for the first time since the actors strike for a special SAG event hosted by The Ankler in partnership with Netflix. Aria Mia Loberti (Marie-Laure LeBlanc) and Louis Hofmann (Werner Pfennig), along with virtual panelists Hugh Laurie (Etienne LeBlanc) and Mark Ruffalo (Daniel LeBlanc) joined Ankler CEO Janice Min at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood for a conversation at turns highly emotional and laugh-out-loud entertaining.

Afterwards, the rapt audience screened the premier episode of the Shawn Levy -directed project.

In the conversation (watch below), newcomer Loberti, a legally blind Fulbright scholar and PhD student, describes how she landed the role of the show’s blind heroine, moving the audience to tears with her personal experience around accurate on-screen representation of people with disabilities; Hofmann, a German, described his approach to playing a boy reluctantly recruited into the Nazi youth; and Laurie, in the role of a World War I veteran whose PTSD carries into World War II, tells what it took to play the challenging part. As the war between Russia and Ukraine unfolded in real time during the filming of scenes in Hungary, real-life Ukrainian refugees who had crossed the border into the neighboring country served as extras playing Parisian fleeing conflict. Says Ruffalo of the series: “It's really about humanity. What we share is much greater than what we don't.”

All The Light We Cannot See is nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of best television limited series, anthology series, or motion picture made for television. For SAG, Hofmann is submitted for outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or limited series, and Loberti for outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or limited series. For Emmys 2024, All the Light We Cannot See will be submitted for outstanding limited or anthology series.

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What the Hulk? 9/11 Truther Mark Ruffalo Testifies to Congress on Science

Actor Mark Ruffalo, who played the Hulk in The Avengers series of movies, was invited to testify to Congress on an incredibly important public health topic regarding the intersection of chemistry, toxicology, and epidemiology. What expertise does he have in those areas?

Well, none exactly, but he is a conspiracy theorist. (And he may have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night .) Before we dive into the absurdity of his congressional testimony, let's talk about Ruffalo's prolific conspiracy-mongering.

Mark Ruffalo is a 9/11 truther, which means he endorses the granddaddy of conspiracy theories, namely that the U.S. government helped destroy the World Trade Center. Apparently, Ruffalo considers himself something of a structural engineer. According to Insider , Ruffalo said in 2007, "My first reaction was, 'buildings don't fall down like that.' I've done quite a bit of my own research."

Hulk smash! is probably as good an explanation as any.

GMOs? Mark Ruffalo rejects the scientific consensus on those too. And for good measure, he promotes the ramblings of internet conspiracy theorist and snake oil salesman Mike Adams, the purveyor of Natural News.

Given his vast expertise in structural engineering, infectious disease, and biotechnology, it's no wonder that Congress saw fit to invite Mark Ruffalo to give testimony on public health.

The Hulk Testifies to Congress on Public Health

Mark Ruffalo is playing the lead role in a new movie called Dark Waters , which is about the real-life story of a lawyer who hounded the company DuPont over a chemical called PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid). PFOA falls under a class of chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).

PFOA and PFAS can be found absolutely everywhere in the environment and even in your body. The reason is two-fold: (1) They are widely used in multiple products due to their water- and grease-repelling properties, and (2) They don't degrade very easily, earning them the nickname "forever chemicals." This has rightly led to concerns over their safety.

Some evidence suggests that PFAS is linked to various kinds of cancer, while other research says the evidence isn't convincing . A report by the EPA says "that a PFOA drinking water concentration of 0.5 µg/L would correspond to a one-in-a-million increased risk of cancer."

The bottom line is that we don't really know what a "safe" level of PFOA or other PFAS chemical is. So far, the evidence indicates that these chemicals pose a very minor (perhaps negligible) risk to the average person, while there may be greater risks associated with high exposure (for instance, people who work directly with the chemicals). We should research them more and enact tighter regulations if the evidence supports it.

Will the movie Dark Waters clearly communicate this nuanced view? Of course it won't. Mark Ruffalo says he wants an environmental revolution, which means that Dark Waters is going to be Erin Brockovich redux. That's why he was invited to Congress: To spread fear instead of knowledge.

Because The Hulk became a mutant following exposure to gamma radiation, we look forward to Ruffalo's upcoming congressional testimonies on nuclear engineering and genomics.

View the discussion thread.

By Alex Berezow, PhD

Former Vice President of Scientific Communications

Dr. Alex Berezow is a PhD microbiologist, science writer, and public speaker who specializes in the debunking of junk science for the American Council on Science and Health. He is also a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors and a featured speaker for The Insight Bureau . Formerly, he was the founding editor of RealClearScience.

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Mark L. Ruffalo M.S.W., D.Psa.

Mark L. Ruffalo, M.S.W., D.Psa., is a psychotherapist in private practice in Tampa, Florida, and serves as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and Adjunct Instructor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. His main interests include the history of psychiatry, particularly mid-20th century American psychiatry; the conceptualization of mental illness; and the psychoanalytic treatment of mood and personality disorders, conversion disorder, and schizophrenia.

Ruffalo received his bachelor's degree in psychology summa cum laude and his master's degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed his internship at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His doctoral project, titled "Understanding Schizophrenia: Toward a Unified Biological and Psychodynamic Approach," was published in the journal Psychoanalytic Social Work.

The views expressed on this blog are solely his own and do not reflect the views of any of his employers. His website is drruffalo.com .

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Mark Ruffalo reflects on how he dealt with a brain tumor diagnosis years ago

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Mark Ruffalo has quite the tale about what happened before he first became a father.

During a recent conversation on Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett’s “Smartless” podcast , Ruffalo shared that more than 20 years ago, when his wife Sunrise Coigney was close to giving birth to their son Keen, he had a dream that he had a brain tumor and it frighteningly proved true.

According to the elder Ruffalo, he had a bout a week left shooting “The Last Castle” with James Gandolfini and Robert Redford when he awoke from “this crazy dream, you know, it wasn’t like any other dream I ever had.”

“It was just like, ‘You have a brain tumor.’ It wasn’t even a voice,” Ruffalo recalled. “It was just pure knowledge: ‘You have a brain tumor, and you have to deal with it immediately.’”

Despite having no past symptoms other than an ear infection, the actor said he felt such “a sense of doom” that he decided to go to see a doctor anyway, just in case.

The doctor sent him for a scan, he said.

“The nurse calls the doctor out, and I could hear them talking in the other room, and she just comes in, and she’s a zombie,” Ruffalo said. “And she says, ‘You have a mass behind your left ear the size of a golf ball, and we don’t know what it is. We can’t tell until it’s biopsied.’”

Because his wife was about to give birth, Ruffalo said he decided to wait to tell her.

“She had the birth plan, she did the yoga, she had the doula, we had a hot tub ordered,” he said. “This is like her wedding, you know, man? This is like her christening, her quinceañera, and I was just like, ‘I can’t.’”

The tumor, fortunately, turned out to be benign. Tthe “Avengers” star eventually told his wife a week after she gave birth to their son, as he prepared to go to the neurologist to work on a treatment plan.

“When I told Sunny about it, first she thought I was joking,” Ruffalo said. “And then she just burst into tears and said, ‘I always knew you were gonna die young.’”

The surgery to remove the mass carried a 20% chance of “killing” the nerve on the left side of his face and a 70% chance of losing the hearing in his left ear, Ruffalo said on the podcast.

He woke up completely deaf in one ear, which is still the case for him today, Ruffalo said. His initial facial paralysis on his left side resolved within a year of his surgery.

Ruffalo said he recalled thinking at the time, “Take my hearing, but let me keep the face and just let me be the father to these kids.”

He and Coigney later welcomed daughters Bella, now 18 and Odette, 16.

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

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• January 25, 2024

Mark Ruffalo opens up about recent health scare

The "Avengers" star revealed his brain tumor diagnosis and the treatment that nearly left his face paralyzed.

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Mark ruffalo talks 'poor things', the evolution of dua lipa, peloton's robin arzón says movement is crucial to heal.

Mark Ruffalo

Actor Mark Ruffalo has appeared in The Avengers movies as the Hulk and earned Academy Award nominations for his roles in The Kids Are All Right , Foxcatcher , Spotlight , and Poor Things .

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1967-present

Latest News: Mark Ruffalo Seeks First Academy Award with 2024 Oscar Nomination

All four of Ruffalo’s Academy Award nominations have been in the supporting actor category. He was previously recognized for his roles in The Kids Are All Right (2009), Foxcatcher (2014), and Spotlight (2015). In total, Poor Things collected 11 Oscar nods, second only to Christopher Nolan ’s biopic Oppenheimer about scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb that garnered 13 nominations.

Quick Facts

Wife and kids, brain tumor, environmental activism, who is mark ruffalo.

Actor Mark Ruffalo is known for his role as the Hulk in The Avengers movies, as well as for parts in 13 Going on 30 , Foxcatcher , Spotlight , and his Emmy -winning performance in the TV show I Know This Much Is True . He started out in the Los Angeles theater scene before his career turned toward Hollywood with a role in the 2000 movie You Can Count on Me . Higher profile movie work followed, as did his first of four Academy Award nominations for his performance in 2010’s The Kids Are All Right . Two years later, Ruffalo found a new level of fame thanks to Marvel Cinematic Universe. He assumed the role of the Hulk for The Avengers and has appeared in multiple sequels and related TV shows. A prominent environmental activist offscreen, Ruffalo has lent his voice to anti-fracking and clean water causes. His most recent movie is 2023’s Poor Things , which earned him another Oscar nomination.

FULL NAME: Mark Alan Ruffalo BORN: November 22, 1967 BIRTHPLACE: Kenosha, Wisconsin SPOUSE: Sunrise Coigney (2000-present) CHILDREN: Keen, Bella, and Odette ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius

Mark Alan Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Frank Ruffalo and Marie Hebert. His father worked as a construction painter and his mother as a hairdresser. Mark was one of four kids, along with his brother, Scott, and sisters Tanya and Nicole.

During Mark’s teenage years, the family lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia. They moved to San Diego after his graduation, and soon, his parents marriage fell apart. Mark eventually settled in Los Angeles.

Today, Mark’s only surviving sibling is his sister Nicole. In 2008, his brother died a week after he was shot in the head at his residence in Beverly Hills, California. Scott was found with a gun in his left hand , but the Los Angeles coroner ruled his death a homicide. Mystery still surrounds the case. Tanya died in June 2023, according to an online obituary .

While in Los Angeles, Mark studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory and later cofounded a theater company with friends. It was Ruffalo’s main platform for acting, though he landed small parts on TV and in films. A meeting with playwright Kenneth Lonergan changed his fate.

Ruffalo began appearing in Lonergan’s plays, notably This Is Our Youth , which led to his landing the male lead in Lonergan’s soon-to-follow movie You Can Count on Me (2000). Ruffalo’s performance drew critical and popular attention, and he took his first steps onto the Hollywood map.

After Ruffalo made a splash in You Can Count on Me (2000), notable roles came one after the next. The budding movie actor had prominent roles in XX/XY (2002), Windtalkers (2002), and In the Cut (2003). He has since starred in rom-coms like 13 Going on 30 , superhero fare such as The Avengers , and indie flicks, collecting four Academy Award nominations in the process.

13 Going on 30

In 2004, Ruffalo appeared in four movies: We Don’t Live Here Anymore , Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , 13 Going on 30, and Collateral . The films widely varied in genre—drama, romantic-comedy, and action-thriller, among them—collectively showcasing Ruffalo’s range. In particular, 13 Going on 30 starred Ruffalo as a lovable leading romantic interest opposite Jennifer Garner and marked his biggest role to date.

Ruffalo wasn’t as omnipresent in the following years, but he consistently appeared on screens worldwide. Movies such as Just Like Heaven (2005), All the King’s Men (2006), Zodiac (2007), and Reservation Road (2007) all helped to build Ruffalo’s already blossoming reputation in Hollywood.

The Kids Are All Right

Ruffalo changed gears in 2009 when he directed the indie film Sympathy for Delicious , which was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. That year, he also starred in The Kids Are All Right , which led to his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In the film, Ruffalo portrays Paul Hatfield, an anonymous sperm donor to a same-sex couple who ends up getting entangled in the family’s complicated dynamics when his biological children decide to contact him. The movie also garnered Independent Spirit, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA nominations for Ruffalo.

Playing Hulk in The Avengers

A high-profile role in Martin Scorsese ’s Shutter Island (2010) preceded Ruffalo’s most significant role to date: Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk, in the 2012 blockbuster The Avengers based on the Marvel comic books . He reprised this role in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Ruffalo again appeared as Bruce Banner/the Hulk role in the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and What If…?

Now You See Me and Thank You for Sharing

In addition to the Hulk, Ruffalo has tackled other interesting roles. He appeared in the crime thriller Now You See Me (2013) with Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, the sex-addiction indie comedy Thank You for Sharing (2013) with Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim Robbins, and the musical drama Begin Again (2014) with Keira Knightley .

The Normal Heart

Returning to his theater roots in a sense, Ruffalo took on the lead in The Normal Heart , a TV adaptation of an acclaimed Broadway play about the beginning of the AIDS crisis. He played Alexander “Ned” Weeks, a gay man and activist navigating the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s.

The 2014 cable movie proved to be a hit with television viewers; more than one million people tuned in to watch the premiere of the star-studded drama, which also featured Julia Roberts , Matt Bomer, and Jim Parsons . The Normal Heart wowed critics as well and earned Ruffalo an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. Also an executive producer of the movie, Ruffalo walked away an Emmy statute when The Normal Heart was named Outstanding Television Movie.

Also in 2014, Ruffalo appeared as one of the lead roles in the drama Foxcatcher . He portrayed a wrestler affiliated with millionaire and self-appointed trainer John du Pont and the brother to Channing Tatum ’s character, also a wrestler. Both Ruffalo and Tatum underwent seven months of wrestling training to prepare for their roles, with Ruffalo later saying , “I really felt my age… it was a lot of hard work.”

The film, which starred Steve Carell as du Pont, garnered significant awards buzz and critical interest. Ruffalo earned both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for his supporting role.

Infinitely Polar Bear and Spotlight

Continuing his string of successes, Ruffalo delivered a strong performance as a manic-depressive father trying to prove his parenting abilities in the 2015 comedy-drama Infinitely Polar Bear , snagging his fourth Golden Globe nomination in the process.

He later earned his third Oscar nod, this time for his portrayal of newspaper reporter Mike Rezendes in the 2015 drama Spotlight , which follows the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Boston. The movie won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in 2016.

The Price and Dark Waters

In the midst of his Marvel commitments, Ruffalo nevertheless found time to reprise his character of Agent Dylan Rhodes for Now You See Me 2 (2016). He then starred as an attorney who risks his life and livelihood to take on corporate chemical giant DuPont in Dark Waters . The 2019 drama, based on a true story , combined Ruffalo’s passions for acting and environmental activism.

Poor Things

Ruffalo’s newest movie is the acclaimed sci-fi/fantasy Poor Things , starring Emma Stone . Ruffalo portrays a free-roaming lawyer who travels across continents with a woman who has been brought back from the dead by a scientist. The movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2023 and saw a theatrical release that December. Poor Things earned 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Ruffalo’s fourth nod for Best Supporting Actor. It also won the 2024 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.

New Movie: Mickey 17

Up next, Ruffalo has a part in director Bong Joon-ho’s next movie Mickey 17 . The sci-fi thriller stars Robert Pattinson with Ruffalo cast in a villainous part. “People don’t generally see me as the bad guy, and I’ve stayed away from that stuff. But I’m really enjoying embracing it now,” the actor told Screen Daily of his roles in Mickey 17 and Poor Things . Originally scheduled for a March 2024 release, Mickey 17 has been delayed to accommodate ongoing post-production work.

Primarily a movie actor, Ruffalo has brought his talents to a limited number of TV shows, most notably the 2020 HBO miniseries I Know This Much Is True .

Ruffalo’s career could have looked a lot differently if The Beat had taken off. The cop drama from 2000 featured Ruffalo as Zane Marinelli, a quick-tempered ladies-man in the New York Police Department, and Derek Cecil as his partner Mike Dorigan. The show ended after 13 episodes.

I Know This Much Is True

Two decades later, Ruffalo made a splash in the 2020 HBO miniseries I Know This Much Is True . He earned praise, not to mention awards, for his dual performance as twin brothers , one of whom has schizophrenia, in the show based on a best-selling novel by Wally Lamb. An Emmy and Golden Globe, both for best actor in a limited series, followed.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and What If…?

Ruffalo took his portrayal of Bruce Banner/the Hulk to the small screen in a pair of Disney+ shows. The first was She-Hulk: Attorney at Law , which featured Tatiana Maslany as the titular character, known by her human name Jennifer Walters. In the 2022 show, Ruffalo’s green giant tries to help his cousin She-Hulk adjust to her new identity after some drops of his irradiated blood come into contact with an open wound on Walters’ body.

Ruffalo also voiced the Hulk in the animated series What If…? Occurring in an alternate universe, he portrays his character in the 2008 standalone movie The Incredible Hulk , which starred Edward Norton in the lead role before Ruffalo took up the mantle.

All the Light We Cannot See

This four-part limited series from Netflix is based on the novel of the same name by Anthony Doerr and saw Ruffalo play locksmith Daniel LeBlanc, the father of a blind girl, during World War II. All the Light We Cannot See was released in November 2023.

In addition to his movie and TV roles, Ruffalo has appeared on stage. He earned a Tony Award nomination in 2006 for his starring role in Awake and Sing! and returned to Broadway for a 2017 revival of Arthur Miller ’s The Price .

Ruffalo has been married to actor Sunrise Coigney since 2000, and together, they have three children. Their son, Keen, was born in June 2001, followed by daughters Bella, born in April 2005, and Odette, who arrived in October 2007. Both Keen and Bella have acted with their dad as both appeared in Thor: Ragnarok (2017).

Generally, Ruffalo keeps his family life private, but Coigney and the kids have walked several red carpets alongside Mark. Most recently, they attended the unveiling ceremony for Ruffalo’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 2024. The actor told People the accolade is “theirs as much as it is mine,” explaining “It’s not easy being married to an actor and being the children of an actor. I’m away a lot.”

Ruffalo’s net worth is approximately $35 million thanks to his roles in giant blockbusters, including Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, for which he earned $3 million, and Avengers: Infinity War, for which he earned $6 million.

During his ramp-up to broader success, 33-year-old Ruffalo suffered a setback in 2002 when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor known as acoustic neuroma. In a bizarre turn of events, Ruffalo partially predicted the health scare in a dream. “It was just like, ‘You have a brain tumor.’ It wasn’t even a voice,” Ruffalo said during a January 2024 podcast interview . “It was just pure knowledge: ‘You have a brain tumor, and you have to deal with it immediately.’”

Subsequent tests revealed a mass the size of a golf ball. The surgery to remove the cancer, which was determined to be benign, led to a period of partial facial paralysis and present-day deafness in his left ear . Otherwise, Ruffalo recovered fully, and his career picked up right where it had left off.

Ruffalo is widely known as an environmental activist, mainly focusing on combating fracking in New York state. Receiving an environmental award at Dickinson College in early 2015, Ruffalo notably told graduates, “I’m here to tell you that ‘activist’ is not a dirty word.” Living that message, Ruffalo founded the Solutions Project, which pushes for 100 percent renewable energy and is active with Water Defense, a group dedicated to anti-fracking and clean water initiatives.

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Mark Ruffalo’s Task Force Starts Filming in Philadelphia in February

The filming of the Mark Ruffalo-starrer series ‘Task Force’ is set to commence in February 2024. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will serve as the principal location of the HBO series, which revolves around a special task force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the criminals the same is trying to capture. Although Ruffalo’s character is currently under wraps, we can expect him to play an FBI officer who is a significant part of the task force.

Brad Ingelsby, who is best known for creating and writing HBO’s Emmy Award-winning crime series ‘ Mare of Easttown ,’ wrote ‘Task.’ The series is created as part of Ingelsby’s overall deal with HBO. The screenwriter is also known for writing or co-writing ‘Out of the Furnace,’ ‘Run All Night,’ ‘American Woman,’ ‘Our Friend,’ and ‘ The Way Back .’ He also wrote the upcoming film ‘Echo Valley,’ starring Julianne Moore , Sydney Sweeney, and Domhnall Gleeson.

Ruffalo struck a deal with HBO to join the cast of the series after winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his portrayal of Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in the network’s drama series ‘ I Know This Much Is True .’ His recent credits include Bruce Banner/Hulk in ‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,’ Louis Reed in ‘ The Adam Project ,’ Bruce Banner/Hulk in ‘What If…?’ Rob Bilott in ‘ Dark Waters ,’ etc. He recently completed filming Netflix’s eponymous adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s celebrated novel ‘All the Light We Cannot See,’ Yorgos Lanthimos ’ Emma Stone -starrer ‘Poor Things,’ and Bong Joon-ho ’s Robert Pattinson -starrer ‘Mickey 17.’

“We are absolutely thrilled to once again join forces with Brad Ingelsby, the brilliant auteur behind Mare of Easttown. Brad’s boundless creativity and unrivaled ability to captivate audiences is nothing short of inspiring, and we cannot be more excited to embark on another journey together,” Francesca Orsi, EVP Programming, Head of HBO Drama Series and Films, said in a statement. “When the opportunity arose to partner with Mark on another series, we all jumped at the chance to witness him once again breathe great humanity into a new role,” Orsi added.

The show’s directors include Jeremiah Zagar, who is known for directing Adam Sandler ’s ‘ Hustle ’ and the coming-of-age film ‘We the Animals,’ and Salli Richardson-Whitfield. Zagar’s other credits include ‘Annenberg Space for Photography,’ ‘The Fix,’ ‘7 Deadly Sins,’ etc. Salli, on the other hand, helmed five episodes of ‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’ and four episodes of ‘The Gilded Age.’ Ruffalo, Ingelsby, and Zagar executive produce the series along with Paul Lee and Mark Roybal of wiip. Nicole Jordan-Webber and Jeremy Yaches serve as co-executive producers.

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How Netflix’s ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ shaped director Shawn Levy

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Amid the bombed-out streets of a picturesque French village, blind teenager Marie-Laure, her kindly poppa, an agoraphobic resistance fighter, a young German soldier and one sadistic Nazi cross paths in the sprawling World War II saga “All the Light We Cannot See.” Anthony Doerr’s bestselling novel , thickly plotted with time jumps, philosophical musings, supernatural diamonds and secret radio transmissions, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. Four years later, director-producer Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum,” “Stranger Things”) and his 21 Laps Entertainment company acquired the rights and enlisted “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight to adapt the book as a limited series for Netflix. Released earlier this month, the four-episode “All the Light We Cannot See” struck a chord with audiences, opening at No. 1 in the streamer’s Global Top Ten list of most watched shows.

The cast includes Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie and Louis Hofmann, but it’s the show’s previously unsung stars who make the most striking impressions. Speaking from London, Knight now writing the next “Star Wars” movie, and Levy, in town to direct “Deadpool 3,” explain how they pulled breakthrough performances from a blind Fulbright scholar, a little girl from Wales and a German actor renowned in Europe for his avant-garde “Hamlet.”

Aria Mia Loberti, who is blind, portrays the show’s hero Marie-Laure with bravado to spare, yet she’d never acted before “All the Light We Cannot See.” How did you find her?

Shawn Levy: We put out an open casting call on the internet where anyone could send in an audition, and one of them was Aria, a PhD candidate in forensics. She had no idea what she was doing as an actor, yet the fierceness of her intellect made me confident that I could teach her how to act for the camera. I didn’t count on the extent to which she would teach me about her experience as a person who was blind.

Depicting blindness in ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ ‘changed me,’ director says

Shawn Levy wanted to accurately portray vision impairment in ‘All the Light We Cannot See.’ Consultant Joe Strechay helped him find a new directing approach.

Nov. 3, 2023

So you learned a few things as well?

Levy: I learned how Aria mapped space. She uses her feet to feel the edge of a rug, an uneven floorboard, brick that’s laid slightly askew. Aria’s so smart, if she walks a space once, between her tactical experience and the way sound bounces off of objects, she maps that instantly to memory.

What about close-ups?

Levy: I gave Marie a note once on how active her brow was being in a take, and she said, “Shawn, I’ve never seen my face, so you need to be my mirror. You need to tell me every detail of what you want my face to be doing, because I’m not conscious of it the way a sighted person would be.” That’s a profound difference in process. I’m a dozen movies into my career, and this was not like any shoot I’ve ever done. It was life-changing.

Steven, did you envision Marie being played by a blind person when you wrote the script?

Steven Knight: That decision was made collectively, early on. I’d written the first couple episodes when we cast Aria, and in her auditions I saw there was no attempt to elicit pity or sympathy or even empathy. Seeing that strength on the screen helped me write stuff where it’s not a blind person being blind; Marie’s just a person doing what she does in this terrible situation where everyone’s life is in jeopardy.

Aria holds her own opposite the very experienced Mark Ruffalo, who plays her dad, Daniel, and Hugh Laurie in the role of her great- u ncle Etienne. How did you get these styles to mesh?

Levy: Hugh plans what he’s going to do and delivers every take. Mark needs more exploration and doesn’t want rigorous planning. I think one reason Aria got so good so fast is that she borrowed pages from both their playbooks.

Nell Sutton from Wales, also blind, portrays young Marie in the 1934 flashback sequences. With her bob haircut, little outfits and sparkling expression, she’s kind of adorable.

Levy: Unbearably cute. Nell’s actually the first person we cast, before Aria, before Mark and Hugh Laurie. When we Zoomed, I was smitten by her effervescence and knew — boy, oh, boy — her inherent lovable quality would bring us out of the gate in episode one with strength.

Marie’s nemesis, Nazi officer Von Rumpel, couldn’t be more ruthless. Steven, what did you have in mind when you wrote that French cafe scene where Von Rumpel slurps oysters while tormenting the poor waiter?

Knight: It’s World War II. There is no gray area. There is good and bad, and people like Von Rumpel are bad. I wrote scenes to make that point as clearly and literally as possible.

Levy: Credit to Steve for writing that scene and also to Lars Eidinger who plays Von Rumpel. I don’t know if we would have found him if my friend Adam Driver hadn’t tipped us off.

Levy: I called Adam to see if he’d want to play another villain after years of Kylo Ren. He said, “No, but I’m working with this German actor on the new Noah Baumbach movie ‘White Noise,’ and you’ve got to check him out, because I can’t stop watching this guy.” So I reached out to Lars and literally within four lines of the oyster scene, we knew he’s our guy. Such menace! But later he finds nuance in this villain character that surprises us.

You shot most of the show in Hungary when Russia invaded Ukraine, right?

Levy: Yeah, and we ended up having Ukrainian refugees playing French refugees in the invasion of Paris sequence. The echoes of history weren’t just subliminal, they were literally in front of me in the form of several hundred extras who, like their characters, were fleeing an invading neighbor from the east.

That must have given you pause?

Levy: It’s all given me pause. We were weirdly topical when we shot this show, and yet again, in releasing it we’re hauntingly timely with yet another war raging. We’ve tried to take Tony Doerr’s beautiful novel about empathy and connection and [show] the need to be spirited in your protection of humanity in the midst of inhumanity.

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Mark Ruffalo’s Health: Updates on the Actor After His Brain Tumor Revelation

The Marvel Cinematic Universe actor was told he had a tumor ‘the size of a golf ball’ in 2001. 

Mark Ruffalo shocked fans everywhere when he revealed that doctors found a brain tumor in his head during the early years of his acting career. The Marvel Cinematic Universe star — who is known for his character, Bruce Banner a.k.a. the Hulk — recently opened up on the “Smartless” podcast about the moment he told his wife, Sunrise , that he had a tumor right after she gave birth to their first child, son Keen, in 2001.  

“When I told Sunny about it, at first she thought I was joking, and then she just burst into tears and said, ‘I always knew you were gonna die young,’” Mark said, before adding that he had to meet a neurologist about a “week after the baby” was born and decided to tell Sunrise “the night before” his appointment.  

Keep reading for updates on Mark’s health and what happened after doctors discovered a tumor “the size of a golf ball.”  

Does Mark Ruffalo Have Brain Cancer?

As it turns out, Mark fortunately does not have brain cancer since it was a benign tumor. However, doctors still rushed to remove the mass, and the Poor Things actor described the aftermath of the procedure during his 2024 “Smartless” podcast interview.  

“The nurse calls the doctor up, I could hear them talking in the other room,” Mark began while recalling the moment he found out he had a tumor. “She comes in, she’s kinda like a zombie and she says, ‘You have a mass behind your left ear the size of a golf ball, and we don’t know what it is. We can’t tell until it’s biopsied.’”

He was then diagnosed with a benign vestibular schwannoma. Oddly enough, Mark remembered having an   “intense” dream that told him he was living with a brain tumor before he was even diagnosed with one.

“I woke up probably around 3 a.m., and I just had this crazy dream, and it wasn’t like any other dream I ever had,” the Avengers: Endgame star said. “It was just like, you have a brain tumor, and it wasn’t even a voice, it was just pure knowledge –– you have a brain tumor, and you have to deal with it immediately.”  

How Is Mark Ruffalo Doing Today?  

Following his operation, Mark was left “completely deaf in one ear, and when I woke up, the left side of my face was totally paralyzed.” He then added, “I couldn’t even close my eye. I was talking out the side of my mouth.”  

Although the facial paralysis subsided one year later, Mark lives with hearing loss to this day. However, he made light of the situation by joking, “Take my hearing, but let me keep the face and just let me be the father to these kids.”  

Today, Mark’s health appears to be in good standing. In the years since the tumor was removed, the Just Like Heaven star has not been diagnosed with any form of cancer, nor has he publicly discussed other outstanding health issues aside from his hearing loss.

Mark Ruffalo

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What Roles Has Mark Ruffalo Been Considered For?

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Personal details

• 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
• November 22 , 1967
• Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA
• Sunrise Coigney June 11, 2000 - present (3 children)
• Children Bella Noche Ruffalo
• Parents Marie Rose Ruffalo (Hebert)
• Relatives Scott Ruffalo (Sibling)
• Other works Plays Moe Axelrod in "Awake and Sing!" play by Clifford Odets (Belasco Theatre, New York City, New York, USA).
• 4 Interviews
• 17 Articles
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• 3 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia He was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor (more specifically, an acoustic neuroma) in 2002; he subsequently had it removed and is in good health.
• Quotes With indies, all they have is their script and it's very important to them. The characters are better drawn, the stories more precise and the experience greater than with studio films where sometimes they fill in the script as they're shooting.
• Trademark Frequently plays likeable everyman types

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Aria Mia Loberti Embraces All the Light We Cannot See

By Savannah Walsh

For as long as she can remember, Aria Mia Loberti has been a performer—prone to singing, dancing, and putting on one-woman shows during family gatherings. “I just didn’t think that I could ever be an actor—it never crossed my mind that that was an option because of who I am,” she tells Vanity Fair in an interview conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike. “When you’re part of any marginalized group…you understand that there’s hegemony and power and you don’t have a lot of it.”

Like the character she plays in Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See , a four-part limited series premiering Thursday that’s based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning 2014 novel, Loberti is blind. The 29-year-old’s ability to harness her lived experience drives All the Light forward.

Adapted by Steven Knight and directed by Shawn Levy, the story is set during World War II. It centers the lives of a young German soldier named Werner ( Louis Hofmann ), recruited by the Nazis due to his radio technology abilities, and Loberti’s Marie-Laure, French girl who broadcasts from her uncle’s home while separated from her beloved father Daniel LeBlanc ( Mark Ruffalo ).

Loberti was plucked from a pool of thousands of both sighted and vision-impaired or legally blind actors to play the series’ heroine. “I probably would’ve never even gone on that goddamn audition if not for that dog,” she says, nodding to Ingrid, the service animal she’s had since college, who audibly snores while resting at her feet. “I was having a really rotten week. My mental health had been really bad for almost a whole year at that point. And it was right after COVID.” But bolstered by an affinity for the novel and a self-love she credits Ingrid for instilling, Loberti made her first self-tape.

Several more auditions followed, not that Loberti ever expected to secure the part. At the time, she considered herself a PhD student at Penn State first and foremost, pursuing her doctoral studies in rhetoric. The Rhode Island native had already earned her masters in 2021 from Royal Holloway, University of London as a Fulbright Scholar. “I just kept going on tape and meeting with people, and I was just happy doing that,” Loberti recalls. At the time, she thought she might go no farther: “I like acting. It makes me feel good. Too bad it can’t be a career. They’re gonna go hire a sighted girl.”

Then came a life-changing call from Levy, who has recently found success casting newcomers on Netflix’s Stranger Things. “I had this whole speech prepared that was thanking him for the time, hoping that he would still consider hiring a blind actress and maybe asking like, how can I get involved in local theater?” she says. “And then I just remember shaking so badly. Ingrid was in my lap cause I was crying so hard. I don’t really remember much after that,” Loberti adds with a laugh. “I think I made cookies and ate like, two dozen by myself that afternoon—it was a lot.”

In preparation for her gig, which had the novice actor sharing scenes with pros like Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie, Loberti couldn’t rely on her academic past. “Overintellectualizing is really bad in acting,” she admits. “I had spreadsheets and notebooks. I wrote Marie-Laure fan fiction—everything I could to get into the meat of the character, listening to old radio broadcasts, learning about the city, all of these things. I internalized it all. Then by the time I got to filming…I just let whatever stayed in my muscle memory be in my body, be in the present moment.”

When she reached the production’s set in Budapest, Loberti was stunned to learn just how many people would witness her acting debut. “I had never been on a set. I thought that sets included a director, a camera person, maybe like a lighting guy,” Loberti remembers. “And it’s like, 300 people, which was intimidating—300-some-odd people are gonna watch me do a job I’ve never done for the first time.” Loberti felt herself guided by the set’s smell and sound, as well as playlists she’d listen to each morning before filming. As Levy previously told Vanity Fair , “It just became clear to me that even though she was literally figuring out how to do it while she did it, there was something luminous about Aria, and unsurprisingly, fiercely intelligent.”

“Everything has a voice. You just have to listen.” That’s both a refrain in Anthony Doerr ’s novel and a lesson Loberti has had to internalize, given the dearth of opportunities for performers with disabilities. “In 2023, that I am the first actor who’s blind to be the lead or have a large role in a Hollywood production of that scale—that’s living proof that change needs to happen,” she says.

While she doesn’t like to dwell in negativity, when asked point-blank if she’s felt represented in Hollywood before, Loberti gets noticeably flustered. “I have never felt represented,” she says, then pauses. “This is so upsetting. It’s gonna take a second. It makes me a little mad. I’ve never felt represented in media of any kind before. I am going to be that person for me. It’s terrifying. ”

By Matthew Jacobs

By Joy Press

She whispers, growing emotional as she repeats the statement. “It’s beautiful, but it’s really scary.”

Hers is the kind of performance Loberti wishes she’d been exposed to as a kid. “I was not secure or comfortable with myself, with the people around me, with sharing this part of my identity,” she admits. “I felt like it was wrong for most of my life, and I was told that it was wrong.” When a person can’t find themselves represented in media, Loberti continues, that sneaking suspicion is reinforced. “Just having someone who can be out in the world, being confident and comfortable in themselves and being mainstream—not a niche, not one passing thing—I know that’s going to make a huge difference.”

At this point, Loberti asks for a tissue. “I think everyone expects me to say no, I’ve never felt represented. But to have it put that plainly? It’s like, oh, what the hell?” she adds. “It needs to be heard.”

Enlisting more actors and creators with visual impairments will only enrich the stories of people like them onscreen, which until now have been rife with inaccuracies, says Loberti. “When I’m portraying a blind character like Marie-Laure, it was kind of shocking to watch people learn this is how she would move, and this is how history would make her blindness different from my blindness, which is not really evident to people,” she explains. “A lot of the stereotypes that we’ve had or expect to see in movies and books are based on people guessing what it’s like to be blind. There are too many smart people in this industry to keep making those mistakes.”

And while she’s passionate about diversifying the industry, Loberti also bristles at being characterized as a “blind actor.” Put plainly: “I hate that phrase. I’m an actor, and I want everyone who comes after me to be accepted as an actor, or whatever profession it is that they have,” she says. “I wasn’t a blind PhD student or a blind author, a blind whatever. I do those things. I am myself. Blindness, to me, is the equivalent obstacle of having anxiety and being clumsy and awkward and nerdy. It’s not something that I should put in front of my occupation.”

Loberti is eager to break down stereotypes and define her own success, one project at a time. She’s cowritten a book with her best friend, Molly Stevens, about an 11-year-old blind girl who goes on a time-traveling adventure to stop an evil force from destroying humanity. And two weeks after she wrapped the five-and-a-half-month-long shoot for All the Light We Cannot See last July, Loberti secured her next role—in another adaptation of a beloved novel. She’ll appear in The Spiderwick Chronicles, which recently landed at Roku for a 2024 release after Disney+ opted not to move forward with releasing the series.

This whirlwind period in Loberti’s life has made her reconsider long-held beliefs about what’s possible. “You have your own power,” she insists. “I don’t care how old you are. Own your power, and if you feel something in your soul, go do it. Whether it’s putting on a one-woman Judy Garland show like I did for my dad’s office, or it’s starring in a movie. Just go do it.”

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