Mark Ruffalo Doubles the Drama, Playing Troubled Twin Brothers in HBO’s I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Mere minutes into HBO’s I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, it’s easy to forget that Mark Ruffalo has a double role, playing twin brothers. Physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually, Dominick and Thomas Birdsey come across as completely different people. And Ruffalo achieved it the old-fashioned way, as audiences will see for themselves when the six-part limited series debuts Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, only on Crave. For the filming of I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, Ruffalo shot Dominick’s scenes for the first four months. Then he took five weeks off, and gained 30 pounds. When he returned to the set, he was ready to play Thomas. “When we were talking about how we would do it, we didn’t want it to be like, I run and put a wig on, and then run and do the same scene on the same day,” Ruffalo said. “So yeah, we took five weeks off to really separate these two guys. Thomas is on a lot of medication. He needs medications, and these mood stabilizers and antipsychotics cause people to put on weight. And their life experiences after their teens are so extremely different. So it was important for us to really have these guys be two different people.” Writer and director Derek Cianfrance said that when a transformed Ruffalo came back, the crew and other cast members were absolutely in shock and awe. “Mark has to play two different brothers, and they have the same DNA, they look exactly the same when they’re born, but they have 40 years of completely different life experiences,” Cianfrance said. “So it was really important that their bodies express that, and not only their physicality, but their souls. And how you feel physically can also change how you see the world, and how you relate in a scene. It was an astounding performance to watch, and a commitment from, you know, one of the great actors. So I felt very fortunate to be a part of that.” I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, based on an award-winning novel of the same name by Wally Lamb, is a family saga that follows parallel lives in an epic story of betrayal, sacrifice, and forgiveness. It’s set in the fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut in the early 1990s, but viewers also see Dominick and Thomas at various stages of their lives through flashbacks, including their troubled early family years, and the myriad complications that arise with Thomas’ diagnosis as a paranoid schizophrenic. There’s a deep cast, with Juliette Lewis, Kathryn Hahn, Melissa Leo, Rosie O’Donnell, Archie Panjabi, Imogen Poots, and Bruce Greenwood among those with key supporting roles. “Casting took a long time, like six months,” Cianfrance said. “We were just looking for people that kind of understood the same soul that we were trying to portray in this, people that were as much human as Mark was. And also, it’s kind of a serious movie, so it was important for me to bring up the levity as much as we could, so we cast a lot of funny people – Rosie, Juliette Lewis.” Ultimately, though, I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE is a serious story about two brothers, with Ruffalo diving deeply into the painful nuances of both of them. “Listen, life is short, and I just think it’s important as someone who’s doing this kind of work to challenge yourself and break yourself up,” Ruffalo said. “I want to be the kind of artist who can’t be labeled, who surprises people and surprises myself, and sometimes (bleeps) it up and sometimes makes it work.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv