Mark Ruffalo explains why he will never host Saturday Night Live. Ruffalo is an A-list actor best known for playing Bruce Banner aka The Hulk in The Avengers and other Marvel films. This year, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the Yorgos Lanthimos movie Poor Things.
Speaking with Mark Maron’s WTF podcast, Ruffalo speaks on why he turned down the opportunity to host Saturday Night Live. The actor explained that he is dyslexic, which makes him “lose where [he’s] at on the page” when he is reading. If he were to take on Saturday Night Live, he feared letting creator-producer Lorne Michaels and the rest of the crew down. Check out the full quote from Ruffalo below:
“I’ll never be asked back. I don’t think Lorne Michaels likes it when you say no. It just scared the living s–t out of [me]. I don’t know.”
“It scares me. I’m dyslexic. I’m not gonna lie. You don’t lie on this show. I’ll lose where I’m at on the page. When I hear about how that show works, changing things at the last second, and I want to be good at it. I’ve been watching that my whole life and like, I don’t want to be the guy, the host who sucks. I owe Lorne Michaels more than that.”
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Though Ruffalo’s reasons for not hosting Saturday Night Live are entirely understandable, there’s one thing that makes this non-hosting a huge shame: Poor Things. In the film, Ruffalo plays Duncan Wedderburn, who has a love affair with Bella Baxter. Ruffalo eats up this role, fully inhabiting the langley, awkward, and obnoxious spirit of Duncan.
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In Poor Things, Ruffalo also shows that he is a master of comedic timing. Of course, part of this comes from Lanthimos’ impeccable directing, but the way Ruffalo sits in pauses — or actively interrupts — when reacting to Emma Stone’s Bella adds to the hilarity of the film. Both his comedic timing and physical acting would serve him very well in sketches on Saturday Night Live, thus making it a shame that he will never host.
His Poor Things success may not lead to a Saturday Night Live gig, but hopefully it could lead to an Oscar. Ruffalo is in a competitive category this year, competing against Oppenheimer frontrunner Robert Downey Jr. Of those up for Best Supporting Actor this year, Ruffalo’s Poor Things performance is by far the most physicalized, making him a strong underdog in the race.
