Poor Things is creating the ultimate buzz around Hollywood but Mark Ruffalo had second thoughts on playing his part in the movie. Starring Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman brought back to life by Willem Dafoe’s Dr. Godwin Baxter, the film is based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray.
Bella Baxter flees with Mark Ruffalo’s Duncan Wedderburn on a journey of self-discovery, giving viewers a fresh perspective on being human, and a woman. However, Ruffalo was primarily not convinced when his Poor Things character was pitched to him. He was rather wary of his competency as Duncan Wedderburn, as he revealed recently in an interview.
Mark Ruffalo pushed his boundaries for Poor Things
The Marvel star was intimidated by his narcissistic character which he felt wouldn’t pan out. While actors are often cast on their resemblance to the characters, Ruffalo was perplexed after Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos pitched the role of Duncan Wedderburn to him. Ruffalo plays a sleazy lawyer, donning a mustache, who elopes with Stone’s Bella to travel across the world.
Mark Ruffalo’s Wedderburn is among the central entertaining elements of Poor Things. Hence, the actor felt it was too much for him. In the actors’ roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, the 56-year-old actor was asked about his experience in Poor Things. Ruffalo answered,
“Yeah! 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. In the movie business, you start to feel like you’re in a box sometimes. I had never played anything like that, and I was scared. I mean, I saw his earlier movies and was in awe of them, but he just laughed at me. So I was like, ‘OK …'”
The Hulk star was so baffled by the script that he even tried to convince Lanthimos that he wasn’t the right fit. Regardless, the director might have spotted something that Ruffalo lacked to see in himself. Released in early December, Poor Things was welcomed with an overwhelming response by fans. The film also won two Golden Globes at the 2024 Golden Globes Awards this month.
The criticism around the explicit scenes of Poor Things
Even though the Emma Stone-starrer was critically acclaimed for its high art and gothic themes, many viewers were disturbed by the consistency of the s*x scenes in the movie. Many film reviewers marked it as excessive. The talks reached the cast and crew of Poor Things, and both the lead stars have made comments on the criticism.
Stone clarified that the scenes were very important to the plotline and filming them was quite comfortable. She told GamesRadar+,
“They were very comfortable. It was a really small room every time, it was very few people, and we had an amazing intimacy coordinator, Elle McAlpine…I was very prepared that those were going to occur because it felt completely necessary to Bella’s journey and growth and they feel very clinical and often very funny – to me, at least.”
Backing Stone’s perspective, Ruffalo also said in an interview with BBC,
“I think that’s what’s so remarkable about this movie, it’s… shaking off this cultural oppression in a lot of ways.”
Also Read: The O.C. Wouldn’t Cast Emma Stone in Major Role as She “Felt Green”: She Now Has An Oscar
Poor Things is gaining Oscar buzz, already having bagged two awards at the first red-carpet event of 2024. Poor Things is available in theatres all over the U.S.
