Mark Ruffalo’s son, Keen, has joined the long line of nepo babies taking over Hollywood.
The bushy-haired newcomer, 25, has nabbed the role of Connor Jacobson in Amazon Prime’s new teen drama Sterling Point, which started streaming all eight episodes on Wednesday.
As Keen revealed on Friday’s segment of the Today show, his decision to give acting a try came amid the ‘Covid depression.’
The youngster previously pursued a fashion design degree before dropping out college.
‘It was around Covid and it got to that point where everyone was really burning out being inside,’ Keen explained to co-hosts Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer and Craig Melvin.
‘I was starting my freshman year of college just before Covid happened and I was going for fashion designer originally and I dropped out not long after. We ended up separating for Covid.
Mark Ruffalo’s son, Keen, left, has joined the already crowded line of nepo babies taking over Hollywood with the support of his multi-award-winning dad, seen in the 2000s
The bushy-haired newcomer, 25, nabbed the role of Connor Jacobson in Amazon Prime’s new teen drama Sterling Point, which started streaming on Wednesday
‘I got the Covid depression, as many people did. And I needed the change. I saw that acting made my dad so happy and I was like, ‘Listen, I need to try something new.”‘
When asked whether his dad supported him, Keen answered: ‘He was definitely supportive but he was like, “You sure you want to do this?”‘
Keen hadn’t much acting experience at that point, having only played an extra in Thor: Ragnorak, in which the elder Ruffalo played the dual role of Bruce Banner and the Hulk.
Still, it took 100 auditions before Keen got a role, as he told Cultured Magazine.
Sterling Point is a coming-of-age drama that follows 17-year-old Annie Jacobson who discovers she and her twin brother, Connor, who have been raised in New York City by their single father, have inherited a remote Canadian island from an estranged grandfather.
‘It doesn’t feel real still. Definitely didn’t think this is where I’d be in August,’ Keen continued, adding: ‘It’s a good place to be. I’m happy to be here. This is crazy.’
It seems Keen and his famous dad – a winner of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards – have more in common besides good looks and a thick head of hair, as the younger actor mentioned he ‘improvised a lot’ on set.
While Ruffalo doesn’t usually improvise standard dialogue in heavy dramas, he has been known to rely on spontaneous and ‘playful’ accidents in comedy and Marvel projects, such as Thor: Ragnarok with Chris Hemswroth.
‘That was almost completely improvised,’ Mark told GQ. ‘Chris and I are just a nice duo and play really well off each other.’
The young actor said on Friday’s segment of the Today show that he originally intended to be a fashion designer but pivoted to acting amid the ‘Covid depression’
Sterling Point is a coming-of-age drama that follows 17-year-old Annie Jacobson (Ella Rubin, pictured left) who discovers she and her twin brother, Connor, have inherited a remote Canadian island from an estranged grandfather; the series also stars Amelie Hoeferle (pictured right)
‘It doesn’t feel real still. Definitely didn’t think this is where I’d be in August,’ Keen told the Today co-hosts on Friday; pictured on July 6 at a Sterling Point photocall in NYC
The handsome newcomer admitted that he ‘improvised quite a lot’ of his scenes in Sterling Point including ‘all the bathtub stuff’
Keen admitted on Today: ‘I improvised quite a lot of it, all the bathtub stuff, yeah.
‘I actually made our [director of photography] break on the first take of that and I heard her laughing and we had to reshoot the scene.
‘I do it clean lines for a few times and then we kind of have fun with it and they just let me go.’
Keen shared that he can compare with the sarcastic, witty character he plays in Sterling Point.
‘Everyone has a little bit of themselves in everyone else. He masks his own insecurities with humor.
‘I find that was something I did to fit in when I was younger. That definitely played a heavy hand in it for me. It’s a weird point in his life. He doesn’t know what to do. His sister has it all set out.’
Speaking about his co-star, Ella Rubin, 22, who plays his twin sister, Annie, Keen said: ‘She’s such a sweet, talented actor and honestly it just felt right pretty fast.’
Filming on location in the Muskoka Lakes region and Toronto area in Ontario, Canada, had its perks.
‘He was definitely supportive but he was like, “You sure you want to do this?”‘ Keen said of his dad’s reaction to his switch to acting; Keen, mom Sunrise Coigney and Mark seen in 2022
During breaks in filming, Keen and the young cast would be ‘having fun on the lake,’ he said.
‘We’d jet ski a lot, it was really fun. I grew up in the country on a farm kind of in the middle of nowhere.
‘So the whole aesthetic and being in nature that was probably the highlight of the show for me, to be able to walk outside and be surrounded by trees.’
Sterling Point isn’t Keen’s only summer role. He also stars opposite Mason Thames and McKenna Grace in the road trip comedy Nimrods, which hits theaters on August 14.
Read the full article here
