“…Can’t Love You Back.”
Says actor; and now director, Mark Ruffalo.
Ruffalo’s directing debut just premiered at Sundance. ‘Sympathy For Delicious’ was written by an actor that Ruffalo went to acting classes with (back in the day).
Mark Ruffalo says “Acting is like loving a beautiful woman who can’t love you back.”
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“As an actor, you’re not focused on the whole. But as a director, you have to see how every little piece works. It’s a much greater scope,” he says.
“I don’t know how directing changed me as an actor, but I do know I (would like to) put acting aside for a while and focus on directing. It was something I immediately felt comfortable doing.”
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Ruffalo says he had no long-standing desire to direct a film before he turned his energies toward Sympathy for Delicious. The whole project actually came about as a result of his early days studying the thespian craft, and a friendship he developed with fellow talent, Christopher Thornton.
“Chris and I were in the same class with Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek .. . and he was considered one of the most promising talents of our class. He had it in him to be a great actor,” says Ruffalo.
When Thornton’s dream of acting fame was cut down as a result of an accident that left him in a wheelchair, he and Ruffalo realized there was a shortage of good parts for people in chairs, and if there was a good role, it generally went to an able-bodied actor.
Sympathy for Delicious was their way of changing that. Penned by Thornton, the movie tells the story of a hot young DJ named Delicious who is paralyzed and unable to come to terms with the reality of his new life. In the hopes of finding the miracle cure, he enters the twilight world of faith healers and starts up a creative partnership with a band of suspect rockers – played masterfully in the movie by real-life rocker Juliette Lewis, first-time frontman Orlando Bloom, and oddball Canuck Dov Tiefenbach.
“We were fortunate to land (the cast) we did,” says Ruffalo, as he acknowledges the people sitting next to him on the leather couch, including Bloom, Tiefenbach, Lewis and, in a wheeled chair all his own, Thornton.
“It’s amazing to be directed by an actor,” says Bloom, who earned rave reviews from fellow cast members for his rocker chops.
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“We wanted to keep it rough,” he says.
“I’ve worked with actors-turned-director before,” she says. “(What made Ruffalo different was) he was so visual. You don’t often find a new director (who comes out of acting) with such a strong visual style. He was breaking all the rules, and I love that in cinema.”
Best,
Dana
Please share. Thanks.
