Mark Ruffalo Was Told to Take ‘Zodiac’ Offer or ‘Forget It’ Because the Studio Doesn’t ‘Give a S— About’ Him or Even Want Him in the Movie

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Mark Ruffalo‘s name holds serious clout in Hollywood these days (no doubt helped by his ongoing role as Bruce Banner/Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), but it wasn’t always like that for the 55-year-old actor.

In a new interview with High Snobiety, Ruffalo recalled the casting process for David Fincher’s acclaimed 2007 crime thriller “Zodiac” and being told by studio representatives that nobody cared about him. “Studios, they weren’t coming to me in that way,” Ruffalo said of his career in the mid-2000s. “I’ll never forget when they were negotiating my deal [for ‘Zodiac’], the studio negotiator literally said to my manager, ‘Look, we don’t give a shit about Mark Ruffalo.

We don’t even want Mark Ruffalo in this movie, so you’re going to take what we’re offering you or forget it.’” The studio’s total indifference to him is one reason Joss Whedon’s offer to Ruffalo to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Hulk came as such a surprise. “The fact that Joss came to me for the Hulk was so out of the blue,” Ruffalo said. “It’s a tough part – how do you get away with playing a character that doesn’t want to do what everybody wants him to do and sustain that?

It’s like a trap. I read it and I was like, ‘I can do something with this.’” Marvel turned Ruffalo into an action hero, which he said was a far cry from how the industry previously viewed him.