The 25-year-old actor Keen Ruffalo starred in two projects that, coincidentally, both premiered earlier this month. They could not be more diametrically opposed. One is Prime Video’s smash YA series Sterling Point, about the shattering familial secrets that burble up during a consequential summer in Canada. The other, Nimrods, is a film about a teenage punk band on an impulsive, hijinks-filled road trip to LA to achieve their dream of opening for Green Day. In both projects, Ruffalo — yes, the son of Mark — plays puckish characters whose impish actions set off an irreversible chain of events.
Teenage mischief aside, that’s really where the similarities end between Nimrods and Sterling Point. Well, unless you count the Sterling Point wrap party. The festivities, Ruffalo explains, included a karaoke machine. Someone who’d seen Nimrods at its Toronto International Film Festival premiere signed Ruffalo up, unbeknownst to him, to sing “American Idiot.” Ruffalo had never really done karaoke, but jumped onstage anyway. “It’s a good song, so I gave it my all,” he says.
Ruffalo didn’t have much of a relationship to punk until post-Nimrods, but music has always had a role in his life. His mother played a lot of Bob Marley around the house, and Ruffalo — an avid Minecraft player as a kid — would listen to Minecraft-themed song parodies that he’d find online. Mom was not impressed: “’Yeah, it’s really nice, sweetheart,’” he laughs. Ruffalo took up guitar when he was young, but only stuck it out for a few months. The only thing he remembers from those lessons: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” He regrets it, especially because his sister plays bass, drums, and guitar. “Playing the instruments with her would have been so fun,” he says. “She’s so sick…she’s definitely the coolest Ruffalo.”
When Ruffalo got older, his aperture widened. He and his friends would listen to artists like Freddie Gibbs, Oliver Tree, Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Yachty, and they liked being the people who’d open up the mosh pit at concerts. As an adult, his tastes have continued evolving — lately he’s been digging into more grunge — and he now considers music essential to his day to day. “If I’m walking around, I have music playing. If I’m driving, I have music playing,” he says. “It truly grounds me when I’m out and about.”
Ruffalo walked us through five songs that have transformed him as a person.
Rainbow Kitten Surprise, “Cocaine Jesus”
