Mark Ruffalo Reveals How Stressed He Felt After Leaking MCU Plot Details
The classic line about the Hulk goes, “Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” With Mark Ruffalo, the shoe was on the other foot: He was afraid he made Marvel angry and he wouldn’t turn into the Hulk anymore as a result.
Among Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) actors, Ruffalo and Tom Holland are infamous as the worst spoiler offenders. Benedict Cumberbatch often came with Holland and press tours to ensure the kid didn’t get a little too loose-lipped. But nothing Holland did compares to the giant faux pas Ruffalo committed.
What did Mark Ruffalo do wrong?
According to Screen Rant, Ruffalo’s humiliation came during the world premiere of Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. This was a big deal for Hulk fans because this was the first time Hulk had shown up in an MCU movie since Avengers Age of Ultron.
Unfortunately, Ruffalo played a game they used to show on Animaniacs called “Good Idea, Bad Idea.”
Good idea: Putting a live stream on Facebook of the world premiere of your new Marvel movie. Bad idea: Putting a live stream on Facebook of the actual Marvel movie itself.
In other words, Ruffalo forgot to turn the live stream off and started broadcasting the movie once he got inside the theater. About 20 minutes of the movie played before someone got wise to what was happening.
One can only guess they didn’t play those warnings about how cameras in the theater are strictly prohibited or they didn’t have security to put their devices in little bags. Either way, Ruffalo was busted.
What happened after Mark Ruffalo’s goof?
Ruffalo has spoken about having egg on his face at a number of talk shows afterward. Once Ruffalo realized what he had done, not only was there an egg on his face, but the egg was fried — especially after he had to deal with Kevin Feige.
“He was like, ‘What are you doing, man?'” Ruffalo told an interviewer. “I told him, ‘Kevin, it was an accident. I swear to God. They told me to use the Facebook Live, I don’t know how to use it!’ He was like, ‘You can’t do this stuff!'”
But then, once word of Ruffalo’s errant live feed got out, Marvel and Feige changed their tune.
“I walk over to him to say sorry, and he grabs me in a bear hug,” Ruffalo recalled. “And he’s like, ‘That was genius! We got more press from that than the entire premiere! We couldn’t have imagined doing something that good!'”
They weren’t kidding. Thor: Ragnarok became far and away from the most financially successful of the Thor movies. That wasn’t all because of Ruffalo’s mistake, but it seemed like his mistake still helped more than it hurt.
Maybe spoilers aren’t the worst thing in the world.
It’s easy to understand why Marvel execs had a heart attack when they realized Ruffalo had accidentally broadcast the movie. Concerns over piracy have only intensified in the past few years, and studios don’t like to deal with anything that might diminish those precious box office dollars.
On the other hand, Ruffalo’s actions were clearly accidental, no matter how high profile they were, and the goof, which is easy to laugh at in hindsight, got Disney all kinds of free publicity. After all, Ruffalo’s footage certainly wouldn’t be mistaken for a watchable copy.
But even if it were, maybe people anxious about spoilers might consider unclenching their jaws a little. Spoilers are no fun, but into today’s social media-saturated world, they’re inevitable, no matter how much boldface, spaces or asterisks you use.
Yet when movie reviewers simply try to explain the story of a movie, as they always do, fans cry spoiler at the vaguest plot details.
Your mileage may vary, and everyone should make an effort to be courteous. But as Feige and company found out, they don’t have to be the end of the world. It’s one thing to read about a big moment in a movie.
It’s something else altogether to experience it for yourself, even if you think you know what you’re going to get.
