Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Mark Ruffalo

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson join this week to reminisce about their misadventures in New Orleans! Mark also talks to Ted and Woody about overcoming the tragic death of his best friend, high school theater memories, how he literally fleshed out his character in the hit HBO Max show “Task,” the importance of speaking out against injustice, and more. This episode contains a brief discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.Like watching your podcasts?  Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Before we begin, a word of caution. This episode contains a brief discussion of suicide, which some listeners may find upsetting. If you are someone you know need support, please call our text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. I've emailed you like 50 fucking... Shut up, man. No, no, no, don't go there. No, I'm kidding. I made that.

But, uh... Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. Mark Ruffalo is a guy that I've admired from afar, which is stupid. I should have tackled them years ago and sat down and talked to him or whatever. I so admire him. His range is incredible from the 2015 drama spotlight for which he was nominated for an Oscar to playing the Hulk and Bruce Banner in eight Marvel movies. He currently is the star and executive producer of TASC on HBO Max,

which I really encourage you to all to watch. Today is a double treat for me. We've got Woody joining us from Paris over Zoom. So hello Woody. Hello, Mark Ruffalo. This is a big deal, Woodrow. I'm so excited to see you, buddy. Good to see you, brother.

How you doing, T? Yeah, good, really good, actually. You guys. Kids, grandkids, babies crawling around. It's been very nice. Really? Are they here? Oh, hi. That's wicked.

I love Ohio, man. I really love it. It's amazing. I like where you are, too, Woody. I got to come see you there. In Austin? Yeah. No, on the island.

Is he on the island still? Well, I mean, I'm, I've kind of been living in Austin more lately, but I'm definitely always going to be going back to Maui for sure anytime I can't. Yeah. So you know, the reason why I'm doing a podcast and loving it so

much is because I watch Woody create family and community wherever he goes. True. And it's a genuine party and people flock to him and he really has this community of people he loves

and love him. Huge community. Yes. I don't. You know, I don't. I don't have time for you if you asked me to go have a beer and let's talk. But look, here we are. I know. That's, we get to do that.

This is good. This is a good excuse. All right. Enough about me and Woody. Woody and I had a bar fight in New Orleans while we were making a family together. You know, we like, we were faking it, like we were fighting? No, no. We were fighting.

Well, it turned in. Do you remember? A woman came up to you, we were shooting, we were shooting, Now You See Me, the first one, in New Orleans, completely on the streets, totally wild, you know, capturing stuff on a long lens, getting dragged into bars during the middle of a scene, like in the middle of Mardi Gras. But we were out one night. And it was a packed place, Woody. And a woman came up to him and she said, oh, my God, I love you so much. And Woody put his hand on her arm And he said, oh, thank you, thank you, darling, you know.

And this guy comes over and he pushes her out of the way And he shoves Woody. Oh, bad, bad person. No, not good. Yeah, I remember that. Because Woody's first response is not shove someone back, but immediately punch them in the face. Yes.

Which is the right thing to do, by the way. It's the absolute right thing. to do. But then a whole melee broke out in this bar. Anyone on your side? Or is it all? Well, he was in it. I was in the middle of it and it was turning

into a, I mean, it was going to become a whole thing. And I grabbed you. We needed the, we needed yeah, that's right. I grabbed you and I pulled you out because I was like, this could be fun but it also just could go

so disastrously wrong. because you and I might be able to handle ourselves, but the rest of the folks we were with? I don't think so. I'm embarrassed to say that I would have been the guy that said, I'll be right. I'll call someone. I'll be right back.

You wait right there. Well, I was a wrestler. He handles the head and I could take the leg. So together we're like a perfect combination. I'm very impressed with the wrestling thing. That's a real deal. That's a real sport. a real, you work your ass off when you're a wrestler.

Oh, yeah. That was the most. But, you know, a wrestler, wrestler is a way better fighter. It's like jujitsu in a way because they want to get close. They want to get on the ground. And great, you want to get on the ground. Let's get on the ground. Yeah.

You know, normally you're thinking, I don't want to be on the ground, no. No, we want to be on the ground. Like, Mark, he's ready to get on the ground. Yeah, I do better on the ground. You're like a good wrestler, right? I was pretty good. Yeah, I was pretty good. And then...

One weight cut. You know what? I started in seventh grade and 86 pounds. Oh, geez. Wow. I was just a little... I see pictures of me as like these little legs in tights with my knee pads were like, my knee pads were like, my legs came out and the knee pads were like this. They're like these little marshmallows around my...

My toothpick legs. And you fought until how long? How much did you weigh when you quit? When I stopped, I was 126. But I was losing 15 or 20 pounds to make weight. You know, at that time, you were cutting all this weight, which was insane. Your body's growing and you're literally. Starving.

Yeah, you're starving. I mean, I would walk down the, I'd walk down the hallways like a zombie hadn't eaten. And you do it. You wait till the last minute, you know. So you're literally cutting 10, 15, 20 pounds in the course of like three days. It's all water weight. So you're spitting in a cup. Oh, geez.

You're wearing garbage bags. Yeah, garbage bags, essentially. And you're trying to make as much sweat. It's all water weight. And so you're delirious. and I'm going from one class to the next, just trying to get to, you know, making weight, which was 3 o'clock.

And then we would go out and binge on Snickers, big gulps, you know, slushies, you know, pizza, like the crappiest junk food. Most of it was sugar. And it was, it was terrible. But it was also like an incredible form of discipline at that early age. Until you were 18, maybe?

I did. When I was 17, I left, I went, I was, I used to walk by the drama department and I secretly wanted to be in. Where are you? Where? I was in, I was in Virginia Beach, Virginia at first colonial high school. And Nancy Curtis was the teacher there. And I'd walk by the drama department. I'd look in there. And there was, you know, I'm in the wrestling room and it's a bunch of guys and we're all on the mat, sweating. in each other's crotches and, you know, just miserable and tearing tendons and, you know, bloody mouths from your braces getting scraped across your feet. And I walked by the drama department, and it's like 20 girls and two guys, and they're all rolling around on the ground. And I'd be like, I want to do that. I want to be in there.

So my senior year, I quit, I quit wrestling. And I joined the drama department. And hold on. You didn't want to quit the one before you knew you were going to get to do the other, did you? Or did you already? I mean, in other words, you didn't get cast in something and then quit. No, no, I just, I took the drama class. As an elective, I took drama.

And all my friends were like, is there something you want to tell us? You know, you're quitting wrestling and going into the drama department. Like, is there something? Yeah. Yeah, I was like, yeah, I'm sick of rolling around with a bunch of guys when they're in there rolling around with a bunch of girls. But I really wanted to be an actor secretly. And so it was my segue.

I could say, oh, I was an easy A. That's what I told everyone. Yeah, it's an easy A. My senior year, it's an easy A. I can, you know, I'm going to take the drama department. But as soon as I got in... Inside you knew you'd found your tribe. And a kid broke his arm in the first production.

A kid broke his arm. And Nancy Curtis, my teacher said, I want you to replace him. And I said, I don't know if I can. And she said, I think you can. Do you remember what it was? What was the play? It was a, it was a, it was a, I think it was called runaways.

And it was about these kids who were run. It was a musical about runaways living in a, like a halfway house. And they're all in trouble. And I play a detective who comes in. And I basically just did Peter Falk. I was just, can I ask you a question? I just did Peter Falk. But I got a laugh, my first scene, a big laugh.

And I was like... What was the... Do you remember the joke? It was some... I was on a phone and I was like, yeah, excuse me, Mrs. Hold on a second. And I was like, I just made something up.

I was smoking a cigar, and I was like, excuse me. And there's a big laugh. It was just a stupid bit, you know, and shameless. Well, you know me. And it was a big laugh. And I was like, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. Yeah. That big laugh did it, right?

Buddy, there is nothing better, right? Nothing. Nothing better. Happened to me the same way. I followed a girl into an audition because I wanted to be with the girl. She didn't want to be with me made up. I thought she was making up that she had to go to an audition just to be away from me. Tagged along to stay in the room.

I had to audition. So I made something up and somebody laughed. I don't think a lot, but somebody laughed. And I went, oh, oh, this is almost as good as basketball. Almost. Right. And I was hooked. Yes, but not as hard.

But everything made sense in light. Right. So after that, you knew. I mean, you had the calling. Yeah. And Woody, you were doing theater too, right? Yeah, my senior year. It was.

It was like you. Yeah. Yeah. And it was the same kind of vibe. They call you a theater. You know, and the kids were just so hot. You know, there's jocks. Yes.

And there's all the different two parts of people. Yes. Did you move freely between all? those, by the way, just quickly? Were you someone who moved freely between all the different groups? You know he was. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I kind of did.

Yeah. But, you know, it was like, I remember doing the first play I did was Little Abner. That's right. And I played Senator Foggbound, I think it was. And I had one number, right? Yes.

I do this number in front of the live audience when we finally, you know, did it. And after all that rehearsal and everything, and it sure paid off that the audience was like in hysterics and they loved it. Although I didn't think it was a particularly funny song, but the appreciation was over the top. And afterwards, my mom said, oh, you know, that little Jimmy was back behind you during your song. doing the funniest dance. And that's where I learned about upstaging. And I never forgot. No, you have not.

Let me be the upstaging. That's right. Oh, that's great. I love that. You're like, yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking, man, am I crushing it? That's amazing.

But you fell in love with it. I think it's the same thing. But, you know, I did that. My senior year, I just did a couple things. And then it was really, when I went to Hanover College, I had thought, well, you know what, I could keep my hand in. I like this theater thing. It's exciting, scary, you know, if you don't see. And, but it was my sophomore year.

I did this play, Mad Woman of Shio. Oh, yeah. Like French play, you know? Yeah, yeah. A lot of people were doing that back in the day. That was like one of the popular ones. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't remember if it was a good play or not, but probably fun play. And anyway, I was playing a very, kind of a small part.

I was like a sergeant in the, you know, in the French police. And I was just so fucking boring. Like, I was just really, really boring, right? So, and I, you know, I don't know any, I didn't need anyone to tell me I was boring. You know, you can tell me you're boring. Oh, yeah. So I go up to the guy, Doug Rogers, was the lead in the play, and he'd done a lot of stuff. He was a senior and a veteran at this point.

And so I asked him, what should I do? I just feel so boring and I'm not good. He says, what if you don't like what you're doing, just change it up? Like, you know, change your voice, change your clothes, change the way you walk, and I did all of it. I was walking, funny, you know, and I changed my voice. I was talking like this. There's a man drowning in the sand, you know, like weird voice. But, but, but, and I, and I pulled, I did that classic kind of, you know, the thing,

uh, Johnny Ratch says, you know, where he pulled up the, the pants so you can see the white socks. Yes. Yes. And anyway, so then my very first thing I'm supposed to do is to walk from on the upstage and look at the mad woman and then walk off. No lines, but, you know, I got my belly club and I'm doing this funny walk. Ovation. They applauded. And I came off, you know, and hadn't said, and the other actors are like, what did you do? And I'm like, I'm not sure about it. I'm doing it again tomorrow. Yeah. And that was it.

That's when I was hooked. I'm still that actor. I'm always looking for it. Couldn't I have a scar or a limp? That, you know, please give me something. Yeah. Clearly I'm not enough. No, you had to stand up, man.

Let's talk about how. courageous you are. I mean, Woody, you are too, but we're going to talk about Mark. Well, Mark, oh, my God. You are such a bossy actor. You're one of the great environmentalists, dude. Balsy act, brother. You've been talking a lot about what's going on in the world, which I'd love to get to and all of that. But it's also in your performances. Poor things, to me, is one of the most astounding performances I've ever seen, truly. It was so good. Did you say? Did you see it, Woodrow? That wasn't with

them, I'm right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It was outrageous. It was over the top. Yeah. Yeah, what's his name? What's that direct?

Yergos. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I know there's lots of stuff that happened in your life, which we can talk about or not, whatever, but there's a lot of human, real,

intensely real tragedy. So did you, was the courage that you feel to talk out in life, to act and be bold? Did that come before human stuff that was big in your life, the death, you know, the tumor, the all of that stuff? Or did you get that from your parents? Yeah, were you always that way? I'm always courage, you know. I was a pretty courageous kid. I mean, part of it was wanting to be liked

So, you know, I was not good in school And but I was pretty good physically, you know Woody could probably probably knows a little bit about this too I think we're similar in that way And so To stand out you sort of had to be a little bit more brash You had to be a little bit more brash you had to be a little bit

you know you'd have to be the one to jump off the roof first and and I but I did learn early on that you know Kenny Lonergan always tells me with you um what does you say fortune favors the

the brave or something like that and the bold the bold yeah fortune favors the bold and I and I did that is a truism that I stumbled upon I had a karate teacher when I was 13 years old. He gave everybody, you have a bucto, which is your sword,

but it's a wooden sword, it's a practice sword. And on your book, though, he wrote in Japanese, he was a 17th generation samurai. He would write in Japanese a phrase that was made, for you and who you were. And I was, but I also had a timidity to me as well. And he wrote, courage conquers all. And I really took, and he specifically wrote that specifically for me.

And I really, that really internalized that. It was a moment in my life while I was really looking for some guidance from, from a, a male, you know, that I respected and, and that's, and he gave me that. And I, and I never, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's been like a mantra of mine throughout my life. It's always, it's, it's a sort of always in the background repeating itself, you know. And, um, it is fed by loss because, you know, my best friend killed himself when I was 20. And we're, he was, he was, my dearest, dearest, you know, in a way, a soulmate. And, um, and after that, Michael Darden was his name, beautiful, incredible guy. And, um, but just depressed. And, but you couldn't tell that he was

no, I knew. No, I knew. And he, and, and he was trying to find help. And I, I was in the same boat. I mean, we were, we, we related to each other on our depression, honestly. Like, that, that was something we're both you know he was the only person that i could really talk to about it you know because guys don't really talk about that he was the only guy that i could like say i loved you when i was in my 20s you know and we knew each other since i was like 12 and um we went to mexico together we had this huge the the the mexican witch doctor came out of the mountains with a giant bag of mushrooms and he cooks that down for us and we were these kids we were on a surfing trip we were like these kids and we're like maybe we should try mushrooms you know so this guy

comes down and he boils this concoction down with some other stuff in it and he hands us a a giant cup like this and he's like drink it like globule yes and it's thick and we're like and he just went

and we're both just like and we're both just like glop glop glop glop glop glop glop glop glop glop glop glop glop glop glop and he leaves us. And we're under the almond trees in Puerto Oaxaca and

Puerto Escondido, like this monster wave. It was the best. It's a Mexican pipeline. It was hardcore. And we're in our hammocks under the almond trees. And this we're hit like a, I remember he gets up to go to

the bathroom and I just hear him go oh! And then boom he just passes out and i'm like i'm not feeling anything i run over there and he's just laying on the ground like oh oh i'm like what is he's like oh oh oh oh are you okay yeah i'm okay and so we have this like like ego shattering thing

and it's a very long story no no keep going and I love mushroom stories we're literally sitting across the room in communication with each other without speaking wow and for hours was this hours oh man this thing went on

I woke up on the top of this rock in the edge of the ocean like 70 feet up by myself I don't know how I got up there. Wow. I had to get down, and it was just a cliff, a sheer cliff. And I woke up there by myself, right?

I mean, part of the night I don't even know what happened. But the last time I saw him, we were sitting there, and we were having this kind of talk. And we were these guys. We were these macho surfer dudes, you know, and it was just like, hey, man, I love you. It was the first time I ever had that with a man, or, I mean, even a woman, like, just to be like, hey, man, you're like a brother to me. I love you. And we've been through so much together. And it was just this, it was just a deep, deep sense of brotherly love, you know?

yeah and um but that was our relationship after ever ever since then there's just that connection you know and then yeah he so he he he killed himself he was too unhappy um how old we have i was 21 and um so it was uh 36 36 years ago and um but what i got out of that was you got to live I have to live I'm living for him now because suicide was always something that was

in my mind too as this young depressed guy you know and after that and I saw what suicide does to a family and friends it's just it's a bomb that goes off

and it's just leaves devastation all around you you know and I understand it Like, but I also know what cost of it, but what I did say was like, okay, I'm living for, for, for, for all of us now. And it's been like that with all the people who have died in my life, I'm just like, okay, I'm living for them now, too. And so you don't like. And what pulled you out of your depression?

Or are you pulled out of your depression? Now I just manage it, man. I've, you know, I've tried medication, talk, talk therapy, you know, everything you do. Age has helped. Having the kids was a huge help, you know, just having to, like, engage with the kids every single day when they're little and their needs. Like, there's just no time. And it's very hard to approach your kid and go, whoa, I'm depressed the day. Yeah, bro, I'm out for the day.

I'm laying in bed. No, you can't do that. And so, like, that was a big thing, Woody. and work, you know, not struggling so much has been helpful. Not struggling with work or money. Yeah, as an actor, money, like the rejections, you know, it was so hard in the beginning. And there was just no reprieve. It was just so hard.

And so just being able to support myself as an actor was like, oh, you know, and not having to worry about my car getting booted and taken away and never be seen again because it's too expensive to get it out. The car's not even worth what it costs after you finally figure out where they've taken it in Los Angeles, you know?

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And so over time it's gotten better and better, you know? And then just a relationship to the earth, like that's probably do do that a little more what do you mean just making sure that i'm out and in that reality

and and and and and letting it speak being in enough for it to speak to me nature nature just just just on a hike just just touching the ground sitting on you know being grounded on the ground with your body with some part of your flesh in touch with the ground you know but listening and it's the feeling it's a and you have to sort of i start to do it alone mostly because if you're with people it sort of becomes a more thing about you and the people and communicating with people but the awesomeness of it even in the smallest places like central park there's an awesomeness that is available to anyone at any time and it just is like that feeds me now that that that's i'm like oh i need a hit i need the fix of that i need to hit of that

and so that that helps me and then exercise man like i never used to exercise do you surf because being in the ocean yeah the ocean's my place but i live in manhattan it's the hardest thing to do um so i'm on my bike like i'm on my peloton or i'm on my road bike in the mountains of upstate New York or we have a pond I swim in there I spend a lot of time in the pond you guys are kindred spirits you and Woody you really are

so much in common I know he's my brother I mean that's like you know you know this Woody because I think we had you know we also came up this our dad my dad is a wild guy too you know and like there was a

you know it's just I relate to his story quite a bit Yep. And he's, he's courageous, too. Oh, Lord. Right? I mean, that guy is like fearless. Nothing as a fear.

I'm more afraid of the world than he is. I have to be careful. I have to be careful with Woody because he's a little bit. If I try to fly too high, you know, it's like Icarus. If I get too close to Woody, I get burned. Yeah. I burn, sizzle when I crashed to the ground. Oh, he's crashed me out.

Oh, I seriously. One night with him in New Orleans, I was, like, laid out. I have to stop. I consciously had to stop comparing myself to you, Woodrow, because it was just... It's hard. It's too hard. He's got an engine inside of him. Now I just admire and love from a distance.

Yeah. I feel like I'm at my own funeral. This is wonderful. Just wait till you die. This is nothing. So, you know, the time I got, I got depressed when I moved to New York, and I was living with two roommates who were both, one was going to Juilliard, and then Rob was going to, he was getting all these commercials and everything, and I couldn't even get an agent, you know, and it's like

that Catch-22 where you realize, well, you know, you. the agent's not going to take you if they haven't seen you in something. And you can't be seen in anything because you don't have an agent to send you on and on. You know, it was like that. And I just, I'd sunk into this depression, the winter of 1983. And, you know, what really pulled me out of it more than anything was. So one day I went and I was a temp at some at a random house, right? And I, that temp, like, I'd answer the phones, I'd type shit.

And, you know, the reason, the way I got the job was when I went in to try to get the job to become a temp anyway, they sent me around to different places. But anyway, I found in the trash a version of what I was supposed to be typing, the typing tests. So when I did the typing test, why did I score well? because I had already typed it up. Of course you did. But anyway, I was at Random House, and then I was leaving Random House, and I said, well,

oh, man, you got all these books here, and there's a bunch of classic novels and stuff. And they go, you can take whatever you want. I was shameless. I literally, I must have taken 200 books off that show. They were thinking, you can have a book, You know, and I had it in a box that I had to drag because I couldn't carry it. It was so heavy.

I had to drag this bag all the way down the sidewalk on an apartment. And this is in, I was living on 51st between 8th and not. Anyway, so I get them back and I started reading. And it was one of the most helpful things for my, you know, rather destructive thinking was just getting into these other characters' lives. And, of course, many of them have real trouble, you know. You're reading Charles Dickens, everybody in there is having more trouble than you are. Yeah, that puts things in perspective.

Anyway. I've never heard that story. I love that story. I never knew that. Yeah. And then did that pull you up pretty much? Have you had bouts of it? You don't seem like you're ever depressed.

No, I'm really generally happy person. But I do think that that was maybe the best thing that I just, I just, you know, I've always been a reader, you know, but I just was so immersed in these other stories, you know. Like you read Papillon, for example. I mean, you got no fucking problem at all. Exactly. That's 100% true. That's right. Oh, yeah. Anyway. Was that one of the ones you read was Papillon?

No, I read that when I was in high school. I read that when I was like 15 or something. God bless you. See, I was dyslexic. I didn't read well either. I am dyslexic, but I don't know. I overcame it. You could read it. Yeah. I was reading about you having dyslexia. And I thought, I don't remember you. Did we ever, did we ever talk about that? No, no, we didn't. No, and people didn't talk about that. That was something that was a shame, though. I didn't want people in that. So you were kind of faking your way. Oh, man, I totally. Me too.

Faked. Well, how do we look at us now? Does your brain still mix up the work or letters? It's a thing you grow out of. Did you grow out of it, you feel like? I have a different thing. I don't mix up, sorry. I have a thing where I can't retain.

I can read for pleasure because it just goes in and out. Yes. But if I'm supposed to retain and regurgitate what I can't do it. So hard to do. No. I have to study. It's paragraph by paragraph. So you wander.

Yeah, I gave up, is what I knew. Yeah. But how's your memorization skills generally, Teddy? I have to hear it. I have to be taught nowadays. I have to be taught by my daughter. And I, orly, I get it right away. Yeah, I use an app that I record my lines in,

and I listen to them and I say them with the line. It's hard for me. I'm terrible at memorizing lines. Woody, it's easy for you. Well, I wouldn't say, see, I mean, I'm memorizing now. I mean, this is an epic amount of words I'm memorizing. I start Monday, this movie. And it's like, holy fuck, man.

The brain, like, yeah, and I haven't done anything to help my brain. I've got to say I've done a lot to not help my brain. And, boy, it's like, you know, I read, I'm. I memorized Zoo story on a Sunday, the whole thing, all the monologues and everything, all the Sunday when I was in college. That's another, you got a different brain. We don't relate over here. That's a genius that I can't even understand. Well, now it's my, my brain level as the wattage is, it's just down to like one last neuron or dendrite. I mean, it's just barely. No way.

When they turn the cameras around, I, while they're turning the cameras around, I, while they're turning the camera, cameras around, I have to reload the lines into my brain. I get it. You know, I'm there. You know what? But you do what you have to do. That's right. Who cares?

It's harder. Who cares? I mean, there's a lot harder job to do. Athletes, they play hurt. We're playing hurt. That's right. It makes us better. It makes us have to learn the lines in a way that makes it better.

I don't know. It's a gift. Yeah. I think it's all, there's always a gift in the hardest things. You just don't, it takes you a long time to know what it is. Tell me about tasks. Yeah. People seem to like it.

No, it's really good. Yeah, thank you. Smart. Dark and scary and smart. It's dark, scary, and it's got a heart, you know. It's got a good pulse, you know. It's got a good pulse. Your character is a good heart pushing that pulse.

You're an ex. Priest? Yes. FBI? Yes. Did, was that, is this come from a book or how did this have so many layers it feels like it was created and that's brad ingelsby our writer he is incredible yeah he wrote mayor of east town and um wow he's just this yeah but this is even this is on a whole other level

there's so many he like front loaded this character my character witty is he's an ex priest who catholic catholic priest who um became a chaplain for the fbi i and was going to mass shooter events to counsel, the community. And he met a woman while doing that, doing social work, fell in love, left the priesthood and decided, because he made those connections at the FBI to move towards, you know, police work. And married the woman, couldn't have kids, adopted to Puerto Rican kids, Dominican kids

and one of them's mentally ill and he this is before the first episode ends up having a schizophrenic break attacks the mother my wife pushes her

she falls down the stairs and dies he's in prison he's in prison and that's where the show begins I'm on leave I'm basically working a desk at a jobs fair, totally falling into alcoholism.

And that's where the show starts. I'm surprised they didn't come to me first. I'd love to see you in that part, actually. Oh, man. That would be a treat, actually. You have so much life under your belt that you walk in, you don't have to do anything. Or that's your acting talent, one of the two or both.

But you hung out with FBI? Yeah. So I hung out with FBI. I've done three played, this will be my third FBI agent. But one of them was in, right, don't. Now you see me. And so I spent actually for that, I did spend a lot of time with FBI guy.

And that was probably the most, the deepest FBI. preparation that's i feel like it set me up to play fbi agent for a while but i also had this great guy scott duffy who is an fbi agent and a trainer who was with us every single day on set which one for which one for for task oh wow and so he he was really i would i would i was always going to him uh or calling him or texting him and just being like what is this how how does this work? Does this seem honest? You know, what is, what about this

approach? And he's an interesting, it's an interesting. Did you work out with him too? No. No, you'll have to see his character. When you see me, oh no, he trains other FBI agents. He's a teacher. Oh, I see. Yeah.

Oh, I thought he did. Oh, yeah. I thought you meant, like, did you guys become such good friends that you started training together, too. Yeah. Mark's got a little plump for this role. That's a, that's a, uh, a suit. Oh, God bless. Much easier on your body. Oh my God. Because I was thinking, damn, you really did put on some weight.

You just never let yourself go, do you, Mark? I have. You're fit, dude. Your fit is a fiddle. No, no, no. And this, Sonny came to visit me. I hadn't seen her for like a month. She, or three weeks. And she came to visit me at the kids for Mother's Day. And she looked at me. She's like, well, your father's eating his way through Philly I started with the fat suit and the fat suit just got fatter and fatter and fatter as I was getting fatter and fatter and fatter underneath it eventually you can just dispense with the fat suit

just like this fat suit was so stupid I looked like a little Ken doll a little fat boy Coupie doll with this thing on was that your idea of fat suit Yeah, it was funny. I went in for my costume fitting. And I was like, I see him as like 30, 40 pounds heavier than me. And they went, yes, they made that face, Woody.

They went. They're like, what? I was like, I see him as 30, 40 pounds heavier than me. They're like, okay. I said, do you have anything? Like, well, we have a pregnancy belly we can work with. I was like, get it. So we're doing the costume fitting.

And they're pulling out bigger clothes. And my assistant is watching this. And I go to ask him for something to go to the bathroom. He's like, can I talk to you for a minute? I was like, yeah, what's going? I was like, I don't think people really want to see you as a fat guy. And I was like, thank you. Thank you for the input, Arthur.

But this is kind of how. But when I walked out, we were doing a screen test that day, and I walked out, and the producers literally saw me, and they were like, the same response. Like, what is he doing? And I was talking to the director and Brad Inglesby, and I was like, this is how we see it. They're like, no, no, no, we just want we got to see if, you know, make how it looks on camera. Everyone was freaked out. And then after that screen test, the first day they were like we love this we love this but no one had seen it like that yeah but I just felt like

it just felt right for that character yeah yeah you know how your daydream about the character like I'll read something I just like a daydream about it you know like the part of the preparation is just like laying there and daydreaming about it like what does he sound like what does he look like what does he you know

just impressions sometimes even dreams real dreams, you know. It gives you a sense of layer upon layer upon layer of life. Yeah. When you do that. When you walk in. No, I mean, you, that, it was like, oh, this person's gone many miles in life. Yes. Yes. And he has. And his shoulders are, you know, he sort of has, his shoulders are like, it's just like the way to the world. I love that you said that you discovered FBI, the empathy. Yes.

The guy you were hanging with. I think the great FBI agents are empathetic. They're one of the great, I mean, the really, where you really do the FBI work is interviews. It's all about interviews, you know? Right. And to be a good interviewer, you guys know, because you're good interviewers, is you have to be empathetic. You have to like listen and feel and find what is motivated. And be curious, yeah.

And to be curious, you had to be empathetic to somebody, you know. You have to feel into them a little bit. And my guy was like, Scott Duffy's clearly an empath, you know. And he's like, yeah, yeah, that's one of the techniques that really pays off. You want people to trust you. You want them to feel safe with you. And the way that you can do that is through empathy. understanding where they're coming from.

I have a friend who spent some time in prison. He had a drug issue. He's sober 17 years. Now he's a great actor. Oh, is his name Robert Danny Jr.? And that's one of them. I have another friend who has been in prison who has a drug addict. But he told me, he's like, Mark, there's no excuses, but there's reasons.

And he told me that early on, well, I was talking to him about this. And it was not, it wasn't about this. It was about something else. But he said that phrase to me, there's no excuses, but there's reasons. He's like, I'm not going to make any excuses for why I ended up in prison. I deserved to be in prison. But there's reasons why I got. And we all want to be witnessed.

You know, we don't want to have to be, you don't have to forgive me for what I did. But I do want you to see me. You know, and that's the reason. This is my story. Yeah. And we all want to tell our stories. That's why I think we're so lucky as actors because, and we get a bad rap, right? Like you actor, Hollywood, liberal, whatever, right?

We get a bad rap. But what are we really doing but like entering people's lives and trying to tell their stories as honestly as possible? Without judging them. Yeah. I mean, and you can't really, I mean, we could do send people up and do. you know, satirical stuff. But you really want to tell, we want to tell the truth, you know?

Boy, we could switch gears if you guys want to. Empathy is a great way to start talking about what's going on in the world or lack of empathy. And you are so outspoken. Outspoken is the wrong word. You are. Outspoken. No, you know, you speak out.

That's better. You're a great voice for the truth, dude. Oh, man. Thank you guys. I don't know. So weird. It's like we're all on the Titanic. And they, you know, we got the champagne going.

We got the violins. And it felt a little bump there. Okay, no problem. Let's keep the party. And then it's just like, can we're going off there? We're going in, we're going in the, in the, uh, triangle of sadness. Yeah. Yeah, right.

It's the triangle sadness. I love you and that. I haven't seen you since that. I sent you a text, but I don't know if I still have your number, the right number. I don't even have a phone anymore for five years. You definitely, you know.

I love that. Someone's been, I'm like, Woody, how are you doing? Yeah, he's a free spirit. Everyone around him's working their asses off, but he's a free spirit. Hi, Laura. talking about you. I love that, Laura. It is hard. It's hard sometimes, like, when I go somewhere and I'm supposed to meet someone

and then they're not there. And I'm like, well, I don't know what my next step is. I don't have phone. I have no ability. I don't wouldn't even, I don't even have a number to call. You know, like, I don't, it's like that happened to me the other day. Just like, fuck, I, I, I, there's, there's sometimes you think. I might have to get a fucking phone again, you know. I love you. Don't have a phone. We should all have a right not to be digital.

We're like forced to be digital. We don't have a choice except her way. I still email. I still email. Yeah. But the problem is if I email you now, you get, it's a email address you're not familiar with so you. Have you emailed me?

I've emailed you like 50 fucking homes. Shut up, man. No, no, no, don't go there. No, I'm kidding. I made that. I was like, I missed your email. Wait, what is your email address again? Just for the viewers.

Oh, we'll cut it out. Go ahead, tell us. Yeah, go on. It's too dangerous. I'll be asking you to do shit all the time. You know that. I'm going to send you an email, and I'm going to, and I'm just put a, Loha in the, you know,

something. Well, I have a new email address, too, so. Oh, fuck me. Okay. How am I going to? Go through me. I got the same one that I've had since I was 13. I'll give it to 10. Oh, perfect. I'll give it to tea.

Okay. Tea, I love it. You just called me tea. That's what Woody used to call me. I heard him call you tea. Oh, I still call you tea. You were listening. I wasn't. Sorry. Well, you've been with them a long time.

it's a horrible time it's a sad time it's a sad time it is sad it's scary I don't like to say it's hopeless even though they may have won already but it's it's not hopeless no way yeah no we can't

we can't succumb to that I mean we can and it's it's it's grievous it's yeah a smidge of touch of wickedness

yeah but it's also like we can be in grief we can have grief about this you know like that's okay yeah

I think you know we are there is a loss something's being lost something that we feel a loss but also like I said in every

bad thing is a gift we just there's an inherent gift that comes along with it and that's just been my experience every terrible thing that's happened to me has always been a gift inside of it even when somebody dies

when somebody dies they're actually leaving you a gift of learning something you learn from their death that you can't get any other way but them passing them because it is so real and so truthful when death is there's no wiggle room no

And whether you're coming to terms with your own mortality or you're coming to terms with how to grieve or you're coming to terms with how much you love somebody or love them and miss them and the value of that person to you that can only come through their death, that's their gift that they're giving to you and parting. And that is part of your growth as a human being. and so nothing there's nothing that's happened to me i mean terrible things have happened to me and i would take many of them back but i also know that that i learned how to more about being a human being here from those things right and i feel like in this time what we're seeing someone's said the apocalypse the apocalypse um the apocalypse is the actual word apocalypse the root of that word is the veil to move the veil back. And I feel like what we're seeing is a reality that's been ongoing. But under the veil. And now we're all seeing it. And now we have to be conscious and

make a choice about who we are, who we're going to be in the world, what kind of world we want it to be. And that's where the hope is. Because I've seen people, I'm seeing things. I'm seeing things happened that I never five years ago would have imagined. I'm seeing people engaged in ways that I've never thought would happen in America. I'm seeing the world being engaged on issues that I never thought would happen. And I don't see any other way for us to move forward without it because the system has been so gamed. It's been so corroding. It's been so corroding. It's been so tooled up

fucked up, tooled, yes. To work against the people. There's a study that just came up. 0.01% of policy who just came out with this? We all love him. I'll think of it in a second.

0.01% of policy is actually reflective of the common citizen of the United States. Every decision policy-wise that's being made is money and power. And that's why we're here where we are today with people so desperate that they're willing to kill somebody

over a political idea. That's where we're at. And that's the reality. And the only way you can go down that road is if you lack empathy. When you get to the point where you're, the only way to solve a problem is to kill it,

is to use violence against it, you're either so desperate, you're mentally ill, or you've lost your empathy, which is really mentally ill. Yeah. In a way, isn't it? Yep.

But I see this time, and believe me, I wake up in the middle of the night, Like, what is happening? Is this a nightmare? Is this real? But by dawn, the day breaks. You see your kids.

I see my kids. And I see people actually getting engaged who weren't engaged. And we need to be engaged. We need to be awake. Now the question is, is what do we do? And that's a question that I think people are starting to seriously ask now. It would be nice as you could take just a frathing. of the hundreds of, well, the trillions of dollars spent for the war machine and just

put that toward buying up rainforest, you know, just doing simple, hopefully metamorphosizing the way we have our energy, our energy needs both really, both, you know, collectively and personally. Yes. You know, like, just feels like if we just had the same will, we have as a country and as a well politically the same will that to support war and you just yeah just modify that a little bit and help out the mother nature it'd be so cool it'd be so cool and we can do it I mean that was the other thing of the study is is all of our we are paying more welfare to the fossil fuel industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the agricultural industry, the industrialized agricultural industry, the weapons industry, then we are to actually our own welfare of human beings in

the United States and abroad. Yeah. And if you believe in free trade and all of that, markets and all of that, then take away all those subsidies. And let's see when your gasoline's actually $30 a gallon. Yeah. You all of a sudden, yeah, would not be all of a sudden. Yeah. Yeah, would not be all gung ho about it. No. We are supporting and it's the... And when we say we, it is literally our tax dollars. It's our tax dollars. This has nothing to do with a Republican or a liberal or conservative.

No, dude, that's the fact. They got us all in this game or at each other's throats. Well, these guys are making off like bandits. And I think that's the reality that people are coming to understand now. The same people in MAGA

who are raging, they're raging over. And this is the same. Trump tapped into this idea that there's corruption, that the people aren't getting what they deserve. They're not getting what their need. The elites are taking it all. The game is rigged against us. But what he did was make it on the idea of race.

He's scapegating, scapegoating race and immigration, which is what a fascist regime does. But the truth of the matter is it's all of us. This is why they killed Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was actually using the civil rights movement to integrate the working class and the people of color. That was the next move. And that is too powerful. Because once you take that race out and you unite the people based on economics,

they're having us fighting a culture war but the real war is a class war I don't want to be that too radical but that's what I see you beautifully stated I mean I feel like no go ahead Teddy I'm the only place where I feel confident

talking not because I'm an expert but I've been doing it for 35 40 years the environment climate change oceans all of that I've hung around scientist and been a spokesperson, so I have some, I feel I have some license. And not to score points. I don't get to go, so you see these floods are coming because of oil companies. I don't get to do that.

No, no. All you get to do is be human, caring, hopeful, da-da-da-da. That's how we do it. Because, and that's storytelling. Why does storytelling work? why can why does something like dark waters okay which is really fantastic fantastic like why does that i'm so sorry i didn't see it just quickly dark waters was about a it was a it was a story that i read in the l.a times um i'm in new york times magazine uh by nathaniel rich frank rich's son and it was

the title was it was the lawyer that is dupon's nightmare and it was he was a corporate lawyer who defended chemical companies, his family's friend reached out to him and said, my cows are dying. My cows are dying and DuPont has poisoned them. And I want someone to help me. And you're the only person I know. Wow.

So he shows up there. He grew up next to this farm, going to this farm in the summertime, knew this guy. He shows him the cows. The cows got their eyeballs are milked over. They have huge tumors. And right above him, the water is DuPont's dumping.

And the stream is coming through his land and it's killing his cows. And he says, I'm going to help you. And he uncovers the fact that DuPont had been poisoning us since the 50s with Forever Chemicals, Phafos. And he got the biggest class action lawsuit in the world, and which he used to make the biggest human health study ever done to prove that Phaas, Forever Chemicals, which is in all of us, is linked to 17 different illnesses.

And then he used that to, and this is a story of that, right? That, there's been so many documentaries written, done, so many articles written, but that movie. Wow. that's amazing that movie has changed more laws in the world yeah than any of those other efforts storytelling and it's storytelling and what is storytelling other than empathy in action what is storytelling i mean the whole idea of of empathy being some made-up thing is so yeah it's so funny to me you know it's just like the world would not work without empathy you couldn't do your

job without empathy. I don't care what your job is. If you're a salesman, if you're a doctor, if you're a lawyer, even working, I just don't know how the world would run about empathy. And it's smart. If you want to be selfishness, it's brilliant selfishness to understand the other person. Empathy is what we need to survive. It's not what we're using to destroy ourselves. It's not suicidal. It's how we actually are going to live and thrive is through empathy. And look at every every single successful person that we know has, well, no, I can't say that. Sorry, there's some real assholes who don't have empathy. They're sociopathic.

And they do pretty well. Elon Musk, for example, or Jeff Bezos or any of these people now, you know, Mark Zuckerberg, all of them are lacking empathy. Just a quick parenthetical thing. I was in a show called Damages, where I play this billionaire sociopath. And they had me talk to, they were so brilliant, the writers, to a Fortune 500 guy. And he said, because the study that came out of, I think Harvard was that the similarity between people in prison and Fortune 500 executives, they're both sociopaths. They both have a lack of empathy.

Right. This is a sweeping generality. No, I know. But this guy said, I realized, with the help of my family, that I didn't have the ability to empathize. I just literally don't. I hired somebody to be with me in literally every meeting who is capable of empathy so he could pat me on the shoulder and go, you're missing the point here. Wow. Isn't that amazing?

That's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. We have too many people lacking empathy. Running the show. Yeah. But I was going to say there's a lot of people in prison who do have empathy. That's true.

Per capita, more fortune 500 people without the empathy, Gene. That's right. Thank you. Thanks for throwing, putting it out in. Well, now we're just warehousing people in our prisons. I mean, look, we have more people in prison here than any other country in the world per capita. I feel like, because I have a friend who does pathway to kinship, which is this helping people get, get out by learning to truly empathize with what they have done to a family which is the only way

if you've done your time you will get paroled really is if you see that you really do understand the impact you had help them do that this person my friend mark that's beautiful and then he helps them get jobs high paying jobs and unions and stuff like that to keep them out of jail yes because if you don't be smart about that, then you're just feeding the system again. Yes, and that system is a big money-making system. And look at all these, I mean, the Alcatraz, the Alligator Alcatraz, I mean, how much was that? It was like hundreds of millions of dollars for a few tents. Someone ran off with that money.

They closed it down now. That money's gone. You have Holman taking $50,000 from. some shmow and cash. And what is that? That's a bribe for one of these prisons, these detention centers that they're building. Yeah.

And these detention centers are, they're building them all over the United States to house warehouse people who have mental illness, who didn't have a chance, who weren't taught any skills. I mean, and that's their, but we look at Baltimore,

what the mayor of Baltimore is doing. What does he do? He opens up this pool, later for the kids. He's teaching the kids at community. He's opened up more and more community hubs for the kids to go to after school. And the crime rates have plummeted there. We know how to do this. Sure. We know how to do this. Yeah. But there's big money in prisons. Yeah. Huge money. Yeah. And when we took, we stopped, we made private, we made privatized. Privatized the money making. Yeah. Yeah. This is all fixable stuff, you know.

This is not so esoteric, you know. There's other countries that know how to rehabilitate criminals, you know. It's doable. I'm sorry. No, no, this is good. All of a sudden, I thought, this is the podcast that changed the world. Never. People listen and went, oh, my God, those three actors, ooh.

All right. No, it's going to take what's happening. For the common man. hey but guys i'm sorry to say i have to go because i have a dinner that i'm supposed to be at wait where are you buddy he's in paris oh i'm in paris and i'm doing this movie we start shooting monday uh and christin stewart's playing my daughter so i'm supposed to meet her for dinner and i think it'd be really impolite to be late no you can't give her uh give her marries in my love yeah just like just like a father late as always you know whatever you could do that

I love you so much. Give Laura our love with you. Love you, man. Yeah, I love you too. Hey, Mark, what a, what a fucking pleasure to see you and get to talk to you and I wish I was there in person with you guys. Teddy always always the best. I'll see you down the road. I'll see you down the road. Hey, buddy.

Now we can talk about him. Now you guys can talk. Oh, damn, he was listening. Hey. Hey, man. We don't have to go on, but I so thank you for... I'm sorry, I got on my soapbox. That gets actually kind of boring, actually.

No, no, no, no, no. See, that's, no, I'm sorry. This is... Well, for me, I'll just speak for myself that I am in that position of... Am I being courageous? Am I speaking out enough? Am I?

What is my lane? What makes me feel comfortable and real? You know, and what's really, for me, the thing I thought about before we sat down was how much license you have when you talk about gun violence

you have there's genuine deep empathy that comes out of you because of where you've been and that your brother died from gun violence so

I so honor that same kind of courage and going for it you have in your acting you have in your life and it's legit. So I'm really glad you spoke. Because it is. You're not talking about ideals and belief systems and fuck them. You're talking about empathy. Yeah. I try. Yeah. Because we're all on this together, right? Ultimately. Yeah. We are. And that's the one thing that kind of, well, it's probably me being righteous, to be

honest. But I always think, you know, you can call it a hoax. You can do this. You can do that. You can, you know, but climate change doesn't give a rat's ass what your belief system is. No. You know, it's marching forward. Oh, yeah. And it's only going to get worse. Yeah. And I think it would be shame to lose us as a species. Do you know that 80 million Americans believe that climate change is real and it's caused by actual burning fossil fuels, and they want someone to do something, they want the state to do something about it? That's the polling. That's the recent polling. 80 million Americans. A fraction of that is actually voting. And so there's a huge untapped sort

of power in that, that none of our politicians are actually capitalizing on. I mean, in the last election. How much time has talked about climate change. But also, there's also like this incredible economic opportunity for us. The biggest emerging market in the world right now is renewable energy. And we're handing that all over to China. Yes. We're walking away from it. And just even this year, it's a 10% jump in renewable energy. And by the way, we're also at peak fossil fuel. The reason they have to do fracking, the reason they have to do tar sands, the reason it's going away. It's gone. And the reason gas, it's only going to get more expensive. The reason we don't actually see what we're paying for it is because we're subsidizing it. But we're literally paying

$20, $30 at the pump because of all of our tax money. And he has this wonderful irony. I think that the most clean energy coming out of solar is coming out of, and wind is coming out of Texas. Texas. Isn't that wonderful? Of course. Because they're not dumb. No. Energy is cheaper. Exactly. And that's the way it is.

If it's cheaper, we move towards it. And it's cheaper now. So it's just all, it's just, we're going to come out of this. How old are your children now? My son's 23. My middle daughter's 20 and my little one's going to be 18 in a little over two weeks. Yeah, pretty magnificent. We have all of our kids.

We have four together. I had two. Mary had two when we got together. and they're now in their early to mid-40s, and our grandchildren are 13 down to, you know. That's amazing. How big is the whole family now? How many grandkids and...

Five grandkids and, you know, four kids and their mates. That's beautiful, man. Yeah, it is. So, you know what? We may not know how to do it, but... They're pretty hip. There is hope. They're hip.

Yeah. I think there's a lot of hope. I just think, you know, You know, it's always darkest before the dawn. Love talking to you. You know, we didn't pay enough attention to how magnificent and active you are, but everybody knows that. So this was fun.

I appreciate it. That's an honor. Thank you. Coming out from you. Yeah, I loved it. It was so fun. Thanks, man. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mark Ruffalo. Thank you, Woodrow. Watch Mark in Task, streaming now on HBO Max. That's it for this week. Special thanks to Team Coco. Hey, I say that a lot, but truly, special thanks to Team Coco. I wish you all could see who I get to work with.

They're all amazing people, except for Conan. If you enjoyed this episode, send it to a loved one. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe give us a great rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you very much. If you like watching your podcasts, all our full-length episodes are on YouTube. Visit YouTube.com slash Team Coco. See you next time, where everybody knows your name.

You've been listening to where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow, Our executive producers are Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer, engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Graal, talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Battista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Yen, Mary Steenbergen, and John Osborne.