Red Carpet Agitator

An Interview with Actor-Activist Mark Ruffalo

by Jay Blotcher, August 30, 2011

When actor Mark Ruffalo initially learned that hydraulic fracturing was coming to his hometown of Callicoon Center, a Sullivan County burg that sits above the gas-rich Marcellus Shale, he thought it seemed like a good idea. But when Ruffalo ventured beyond the propaganda disseminated by the energy industry and learned about the hazards of fracking, he did an abrupt about-face. He began visiting communities damaged by fracking, hosted screening parties for the Josh Fox documentary Gasland, spoke to reporters, and requested meetings in Albany and Harrisburg. For his troubles, he was tailed by the Department of Homeland Security and slammed by conservative media.

But Ruffalo was not cowed; he had already taken stands against the Iraq War and in support of marriage equality, all the while drawing plaudits for a growing body of film work, includes roles in Collateral, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Shutter Island, and The Kids Are All Right, which earned him an Oscar nod.

For his exuberant and eloquent community activism, Mark Ruffalo will be honored at this year’s Woodstock Film Festival’s Gala Maverick Awards Ceremony with the first Giving Back Award, named for and presented by director and social activist Meera Gandhi. Ruffalo said of the distinction, “I’m very humbled by it; it belongs to hundreds of thousands of other people, equally as it belongs to me.”

Ramsay Adams, executive director of the environmental group Catskill Mountainkeeper, said of his ally, “Mark is the real deal.” After a chance meeting in a diner, Ruffalo pledged his support to Adams. It wasn’t mere lip service; Ruffalo has since spoken at several Mountainkeeper antifracking events and now sits on its board. “He is a true champion and voice for the underdog.”

Speaking by cell phone in mid-July from the New Mexico set of his new film, The Avengers, Ruffalo reflected, over a half-hour interview, on his responsibility as an artist, how childhood shaped his social conscience, and why he’s unlikely to follow other film stars into electoral politics.