Mark Ruffalo’s life could have taken a very different path.
On a recent episode of the podcast “Smartless,” Ruffalo spoke with hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes about being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2001, and its aftermath.
The “Avengers” actor recalled figuring out he had the tumor from a very realistic dream.
“It wasn't like any other dream I'd ever had. It was just like, 'You have a brain tumor.' It wasn't even a voice. It was just pure knowledge, 'You have a brain tumor, and you have to deal with it immediately,’” he said.
He recalled the only real life symptom he had at the time was an ear infection, but he went to get a CAT scan because of a “sense of doom.”
“The nurse calls the doctor up, I could hear them talking in the other room. She comes in, she’s kinda like a zombie and she says, ‘You have a mass behind your left ear the size of a golf ball, and we don’t know what it is. We can’t tell until it’s biopsied,’” he said.
The tumor ended up being benign but surgery was needed to remove it. After removal he was told there was a 20% chance of “killing” the nerve in the left side of his face and a 70% chance of losing hearing in his left ear.
Upon waking up after the surgery, he said the left side of his face was totally paralyzed and he couldn’t hear out of his left ear.
The paralysis lasted a whole year and he deals with hearing loss to this day.
Ruffalo was recently nominated in the Best Supporting Actor Oscar category for his work in “Poor Things.”