Entertainment, Movies - Marine Corps Times

Ruffalo goes to the source to play ‘Zodiac’ cop

Mark Ruffalo knew he was playing a cop in “Zodiac” who had previously been played by Clint Eastwood (in “Dirty Harry”) and Steve McQueen (in “Bullitt”), but he says he got all he needed from the man himself, former San Francisco detective David Toschi.

After all, Eastwood and McQueen were dealing with fictions, just using Toschi’s police work as inspiration. Ruffalo was part of a team telling the real story of Toschi’s most famous case, the hunt for California’s infamous Zodiac killer.

“I’d seen those other films so long ago,” Ruffalo said. “They didn’t affect me in any way. Since I was playing Dave Toschi, I knew the only place to go would be with him.”

And, through a telephone conversation a few days ago, Ruffalo sounded quite pleased. He’d just been told that Toschi had just seen the film and loved the portrayal, warts and all.

“He said he was deeply moved by it,” Ruffalo said. “That’s better than any awards or anything. I did my job.”

“Zodiac” is probably the highest-profile film yet for the 39-year-old Ruffalo, a talented Wisconsin-born stage actor who has been primarily known for first-rate work in smaller independent films, like Kenneth Lonergan’s “You Can Count on Me,” John Curran’s “We Don’t Live Here Anymore,” and Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

Ruffalo said he was drawn to “Zodiac” by a script that was well-written and dared to end on an ambiguous note. (After all, the Zodiac killer remains unidentified and is among the nation’s most prominent “cold cases.”)

“It’s a pretty rare to get a film like this made today,” Ruffalo said. He doesn’t think the film needs a perfectly tied-up ending. “The journey is the destination. It’s a perfect reflection of what that experience was for those people.”

Plus, he finds it exciting the filmgoers “may walk home with the haunting, emotional impact that comes from knowing that guy (the Zodiac) may still be out there somewhere.”

Born in Kenosha, Wis., but raised in Virginia, Ruffalo went to Los Angeles to study acting and to try to break into television and film. He also worked with an L.A. theater company.

After nearly a decade of small parts and lots of auditions, Ruffalo was nearly ready to give up on an acting career when he met actor-director Lonergan, who was about to make a film about the reconciliation of a grown sister (Laura Linney) and her wayward brother (Ruffalo). The film (“You Can Count on Me”) jump-started the actor’s career and won him awards and attention. He’s worked steadily — and with an ever-increasing profile — since then.

Up next is a reunion with Lonergan in a new film, and then a dark drama with Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly about two families torn apart by a hit-and-run fatality.

Ruffalo said he likes to pick directors and projects that challenge him. “That’s off-putting to some people. But I like that I’m going to be broken up in the process, and then go away a little bigger than when I came.”

Jack Garner writes for Gannett News Service.