‘Every petty dictator… They always lose’: Mark Ruffalo’s latest role offers hope amid political turmoil
‘Every petty dictator… They always lose’: Mark Ruffalo’s latest role offers hope amid political turmoil
While working on Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite follow-up Mickey 17, actor Mark Ruffalo came to a dark but hopeful conclusion. Dictators inflict horrible damage on the people but never win in the end.
Ruffalo was drawn to the role of corrupt politician Kenneth Marshall, “the most ridiculous, insane villain,”despite it being against type. He found the challenge exciting and had “a lot of fun” portraying him. He also loved that the movie “really honors the people…this kind of ground up power.”
Ruffalo described his character as “an amalgamation of every petty dictator that we’ve seen over the last, you know, century, all rolled into one. Add a little bit of, you know, Christian nationalist in there or religious zealot in there, and you have Kenneth Marshall.”
When researching and considering historical dictators to prepare for this role, Ruffalo had an ah-ha moment. [Dictators] all end the same way. I mean, it might be brutal on the way to getting there, but all of these guys end the same way. It’s not sustainable,” Ruffalo mused to CNN at the film’s premiere in London. “And I think that’s kind of one of the nicer things about the movie, is that, in the end, the people always win.”