Poor Things: Mark Ruffalo Was Pranked Into Thinking Oscar Isaac Replaced Him

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things is currently thriving this awards season, recently winning Best Picture Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes. The film’s cast is getting a lot of love this season (despite a few snubs), and the stars have been talking about their experience making the film. Mark Ruffalo, who plays the sleazy Duncan Wedderburn in Poor Things, previously admitted he was “scared” to take on the role. In another interview with Variety‘s Acting Up, Ruffalo revealed the cast used to joke that he would be replaced by Oscar Isaac. Turns out, Isaac was working on a production nearby, so Willem Dafoe brought him over to the Poor Things set to pull a prank on Ruffalo. 

“I thought it was pretty amazing,” Ruffalo said of the script. “But I doubted my ability to do it, to be honest with you. I was scared of it. Even to the point where I tried to talk Yorgos out of casting me for a second. And he just went, ‘It’s you.’”

“They were teasing me that Oscar Isaac was going to take the role from me when we were in rehearsal,” Ruffalo added. “Willem brought him over at lunchtime and Oscar came up to me and he’s like, ‘Hey man, I’m sorry, but it’s just not going to work out.’ … I was just kind of like: ‘Oh shit, is this really happening?’”

Ruffalo revealed he had been replaced while doing a play in the past, which is why he believed the prank at first.

“I literally got fired a week before opening,” Ruffalo recalled. “It was my big break, and I was literally so traumatized. So anytime I hit a bump, I’m like, ‘That’s it, they’re firing me.’”

“It makes you stronger,” Dafoe added with a laugh when asked if he felt bad about the prank.

“If it’s going to be anybody … I mean, Oscar is the guy,” Ruffalo added. “I totally get it.”

Mark Ruffalo Addresses Poor Things‘ Sex Scenes:

Poor Things doesn’t hold back when it comes to sex, which Ruffalo recently spoke about in an interview with BBC alongside his Poor Things co-star, Ramy Youssef.

“I think it’s gotten very… a little bit prudish, and like a new Victorian age, in a sense,” Mark Ruffalo said of Hollywood. “I think that’s what’s so remarkable about this movie, it’s… shaking off this cultural oppression in a lot of ways.”

“I think in America, everyone is kind of prudish,” Youssef added. “This country has been having a reckoning with sexuality, with women’s rights, with autonomy, for a long time, and here comes something that doesn’t really talk about it, but in not talking about it, it’s really talking about it.”

While Ruffalo was snubbed at the SAG Awards and BAFTA Awards this year, he did score Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations. Movie fans are eagerly awaiting the Oscar nominations, which are being announced on January 23rd.