Mark Ruffalo talks corporate-abuse saga ‘Dark Waters’

November 13, 2019


Julie Andrews should have been here singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of movie stars.” Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen were in Midtown this week pushing “The Good Liar,” their movie about a con artist. This weekend Tom Hanks, playing Mister Rogers, is downtown hustling “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Midweek and midway, Mark Ruffalo, with wife Sunrise Coigney, did p.r. for “Dark Waters,” the truth-based corporate-abuse saga, which he also produced.

Ruffalo: “The time for getting a movie together’s usually five years. I worked on this script for years. Just getting it into shape took me two years. It was unwieldy. Going back to a chemical plant dumping toxic waste in a community long ago, it’s difficult to have people still care for those characters. It had to be more on storytelling, not on the people.

“I’ve directed movies. I produced this because I knew what I was doing. I felt I’d have more control this way.

“A great scene’s where the lawyer shows the chemical plant’s CEO pictures of a deformed baby. Not righteous, no gotcha moment, just more like a ‘Look what your company did.’ That’s the exact moment the chemical company decided to settle.”

So more producing’s in his future?

“Instead of waiting for scripts to somehow come to me, I’m going to be involved with those where I can have more of what I want to say. I plan to follow my interest. I just wrapped [TV series] ‘I Know This Much Is True.’ I’m in it. I produced it. It’s out in April. It’s HBO.”

Ruffalo also said that for Thanksgiving he’ll “eat a ton of food, crawl onto a big couch and watch screeners.”

Bits & pieces

Billy Joel’s next to be schlepped into a musical TV series. Creative people have the idea. They now need a network … Leslie Odom Jr. told Eddie Redmayne: “I’m your biggest fan.”

‘Sonic’ waves

“Sonic the Hedgehog” opens Feb. 14. The speedy hedgehog embraces his new home on Earth. His friend — that’s James Marsden — helps defend the planet from an evil genius — that’s Jim Carrey — who plans world domination.

No need to thank me for giving you this information.

Investigate this

“The Report” stars Adam Driver as an investigator for the Senate study into the CIA’s Detention/Interrogation Program. Annette Bening plays Dianne Feinstein. Tim Blake Nelson, also in the role of an investigator, says: “I’m a news junkie. I know a lot about this, and it doesn’t bog down in partisanship, which now is rare.”

How well this does at the box office we’ll know when it opens this weekend.

Crime stays

LOOK at previous presidents, administrations, previous anythings. None of them, not one, not JFK, not LBJ, not absolutely any one of these beings with their human frailties ever never did a bad thing? One itsy bad thing? Ever? Never? Not hollered, swore, stole a newspaper, fibbed, cheated, fired anyone? Ever?

Meanwhile, an inaugural look at our leading Dumbocrats: Burpy Sanders wouldn’t eat for fear of losing his dentures. Baby Bootleg wouldn’t dance for fear of losing his diapers. Little Bo Poop Warren? What would she wear that goes with buffalo hide?


Turkey tip: Run out of breadcrumbs? Stuff your bird with minced cardboard. May sound silly, but airline chefs have been doing it for years.

Overheard only in New York, kids, only in New York.

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