Thank you so much for joining me on the show.
Thank you for coming back, not in person,
but, like, you know, the way we do everything now.
Buddy, it was just... it feels like it was yesterday
-Right? -that we were... and a thousand years ago,
both at the same time, that we were just sitting, like...
We would never have thought we would be like this
-at that moment. -I feel like I would have...
I would have... I should have and would have
enjoyed those moments more--
like, I would have hugged you for longer,
I would have talked to you for longer, I would have...
I feel like there's so many interactions
that I didn't fully appreciate, because I didn't know
that I would not be having them
for, like, seven months of my life.
(laughs): Buddy, I know exactly what you mean.
Maybe that's part of what this is all about for us,
is just to... is just to appreciate,
-Right? -like, things we take for granted,
like hugging people,
-Yeah. -or being next to people without a mask on,
or being around people who don't have masks on
and not wanting to hit them.
(laughing)
Or-or, like, berate them, or ask them, like,
"What the (bleep) is your problem?!
Why can't you wear... What's the big deal, man?"
This is... I feel like this is the part where
Scarlett Johansson starts talking to you very softly
-and brings you down and just, like, calms you. -(laughs)
-(laughs) -That's the other thing.
Um, you're one of the most versatile actors
that-that, like, of our generation, you know.
I feel like in many ways, you know,
what we see of you in the movies is who you are in real life,
because Mark Ruffalo in real life
is somebody who's been outspoken for a long time,
and it's no different right now.
You know, Kenosha's in the news.
Jacob Blake, Kyle Rittenhouse,
you know, the-the protests,
the shootings, the racial tension.
And you wrote a really powerful piece
that speaks to Kenosha
because, you know, it speaks to Kenosha from your heart.
As somebody who's from Kenosha,
what do you wish more people would understand
about what's going on there?
Well, you know... (sighs)
It was shocking, first of all,
to see Kenosha in the news at all.
I mean, it's just not a place that, um, you hear about,
uh, other than, you know, factory closings.
And, um...
And my family's there.
And, um, you know, I-I, uh...
It was devastating, um, to see what happened there
and then wh-what followed.
Uh, you know, to see Jacob Blake,
um, shot like that in front of his family.
Um, and then to see,
you know, all these people, you know, call...
go out and-and protest for Black lives, you know,
which is what we're doing, you know.
And-and that's the truth of this moment.
And I... and I feel bad for anyone who doesn't join us,
especially for the people who say all lives matter,
because if you truly believe all lives matter,
then you should be on the streets right now
with your Black and brown and white brothers
who are all fighting for one of the races
where, obviously, it doesn't appear
like they are being considered
-the same way the rest of us are. -Right.
All right? So, that's what "all lives matter" really means,
is that all lives do matter
and that Black lives have got to be lifted up.
And you should be out... You should be the first one
out on the street, you know?
But these protests have been,
you know, predominantly peaceful.
We don't hear about that, you know?
We-we only see the guys, like in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
They made 170 arrests,
uh, over those days of protests,
and 120 of them were from out of town.
Um, and they were provocateurs,
and they were, you know,
trashing a town that they're not even from.
That was what broke my heart,
because that's not what I know about Kenosha, Wisconsin.
As-as disparate as the, um...
it is economically,
as much as people struggle there,
there's-there's a community there.
Um, that being said,
that community is also facing, you know,
generations of-of, um,
racial injustice and inequality.
But what the news I was seeing coming out of there
didn't feel honest to me.
It felt salacious. It felt...
You know, of course,
they're gonna go for the worst things.
And then, of course, you have, um, what,
you know, the kid with...
17-year-old with an AR-15,
um, being called from out of state,
uh, to come and be a vigilante
-and-and basically shoot people. -Right.
All this is heartbreaking, and I... and I was honestly...
Trevor, I was paralyzed.
I didn't... I didn't know how to respond to it, and I...
And-and usually, I get some sort of message,
like, "This is your time to go.
This is your time to be there. This is..."
But, you know, we're living in COVID.
I couldn't go.
Um, you know, I'm taking care of my family here.
Um, and, uh, and then...
and then, uh, something opened up,
and, you know, I was reaching out to the community.
I heard about this, uh, BLAK-- B-L-A-K--
-Black Lives Activists of Kenosha. -Mm-hmm.
And, um, and, so, I reached out through them
and, um, did that Instagram IG Live
to-to counter
this kind of story
that was coming out of the Kenosha news at the time,
that was coming out of the media,
that was coming out of the Trump campaign
that Kenosha, Wisconsin, was some kind of, um, hellhole
where, uh, Black terrorists
were-were terrorizing the community,
which is total and utter bullshit, as we all know.
I think a lot of people would appreciate
the fact that you don't just speak out
but you also advocate for action.
This election is one of the most important
that America will ever face, and you've gotten out there,
and people have known for a long time
that you are a huge Bernie Sanders supporter.
And now you've been going out, saying, "People,
we have to get behind Joe Biden, and we have to vote."
You know, for a long time,
it felt like the Bernie faction of the party
would never, uh, coalesce behind Joe Biden,
but it feels like this election is different, would you say?
Yes. We don't... We learned a big lesson from 2016.
You know, the-the propaganda
of the United States, um, elections
and election cycle is
that the presidential election
is gonna solve everything.
But an election, really, is only a comma on a movement.
And, so, we have to look at who is...
who are the candidates
and how do they align to what this movement is about?
Which candidate is gonna bring us closer to racial parity?
Which candidate is gonna bring us closer to a Green New Deal?
Which candidate is gonna bring us closer
to, um, debt... uh, student debt reform?
Which candidate is gonna bring us closer to, um...
uh, universal, uh, health care?
If you have any sense
of long-term movement building,
then you have to say that's Joe Biden.
We're not gonna get that from Trump.
We all know that now. Okay?
And, so, at this point, if you're an activist,
if you really care about the movement
and the things that you say you care about,
the closest thing you're gonna have to coming...
to making that happen is Joe Biden.
And when Joe Biden is in office,
we're not gonna stay on the White House lawn
like we did with Obama.
We are going to keep coming.
We are gonna keep demanding,
and we are gonna make sure
that we have movement on this thing,
because you want to know what?
We put you in office this time.
You know, like when I was in Kenosha,
um, and I... and I wanted to know
what was happening there that was really happening there.
They were having a block party, Trevor.
And they were dancing,
and they were doing COVID testing,
and they were doing haircuts,
and they were feeding people,
and they were registering people,
and they were having people sign up for the census.
Now, that's what the community does,
and-and that's what's beautiful
about what's happening in this moment.
The-the gold and, um, the silver lining of Trump
is that all of these organizers
who have been doing this work for years
are all coming together from...
Whether it's from the environmental movement
to the racial justice movement
to the criminal justice reform movement, it...
We're all interconnected now, and we've never been that way.
There's so much, um,
to be hopeful about right now,
and I think that's the message that we're missing, you know?
Well, I-I hope that your optimism is rewarded,
and, uh, it's great to see that you still have the passion
that you've had for so many years.
Thank you so much for joining me on the show,
and, uh, good luck when you get back out there in the streets.
Buddy, we got to... we got to make a plan for voting.
We got to, I mean, make a plan.
Check your registration. Call a friend.
-(laughs) -Take a friend. Take your grandmother.
Make it a party, make a plan, and that's how we'll win.
Mark Ruffalo, thank you so much for joining us.
Love you, man. You're the best. Thank you, Trevor.