FromFarmBoytoActor:KeenRuffaloIsStillFiguringItOut,andThat’sthePoint

With Sterling Point season two on the way, Keen Ruffalo opens up about growing up on a farm, why “Nobody’s just funny,” and his unlikely journey from jewellery maker to rising actor.

 

WORDS Flore Boitel

 

Interview taken from IMAGINE Magazine Issue Three Order here

 

Keen Ruffalo is the kind of person who seems to collect lives. There’s the actor, currently playing Connor in Sterling Point, the breakout coming-of-age series now confirmed for a second season. There’s the former fashion student who found acting almost by accident during Covid. There’s the farm kid who was sent into the woods when school wasn’t working for him, the theatre obsessive who can talk at length about Stanislavski and Chekhov, and, somewhere along the way, the jewellery-maker who learned how to blacksmith. Ask him about his life and, before long, he’s casually revealing another niche interest, another unexpected detour, another version of himself.

 

When we meet over video call, he’s in New York City and seems completely at ease – hair ruffled, a huge coffee in hand and a Magic: The Gathering T-shirt on. He’s immediately warm and disarmingly easy to talk to, and within minutes the conversation feels less like a formal interview and more like catching up with an old friend.

 

That same curiosity shapes the way Ruffalo approaches acting. He speaks about it less as a carefully mapped-out career than something he’s still discovering – the feeling of disappearing into a character, the intimacy of performing for a camera just a foot away, and the importance of having a full life to draw from.

 

Speaking with IMAGINE, Ruffalo reflects on finding his way into acting, growing up on a farm, following in his father’s footsteps, and the unexpected path from jewellery maker to rising actor – all while figuring out where he belongs, both on screen and off.

 

Flore Boitel: You’ve said that you initially didn’t want to act – you studied fashion design and then discovered acting during Covid. What was the actual moment when acting became something you thought, “Oh, this could be my life“?

 

Keen Ruffalo: At that point I really wasn’t sure what my career would be. I didn’t have any preconceived ideas about what I’d be doing. I think I used it as an escape at the start. I knew it was an option – something people can make a living off of, if you’re lucky. But it started as something I enjoyed and found therapeutic. From there I thought, “Okay, PA-ing is fun, but I don’t see a career in this.”

 

I didn’t think it really clicked until later. Funny enough, I didn’t know if acting was something I wanted until I read a play called This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan. I thought, “God, this is awesome – I wonder who’s done this before.” The front of the script lists every production and who was in it, and I looked and saw: Mark Ruffalo, first performance.

 

FB: Of course.

 

KR: Motherfucker! I was like, “Well, great, I can’t really do this one now.” But I was actually reading the part he hadn’t played. Different styles – but that’s kind of been most of my career: coincidences I wasn’t even aware of.

 

FB: You’ve said you loved the idea of becoming different people and getting out of yourself for a while. Is that still what you love most about acting?

 

KR: I don’t know – have you ever acted before?

 

FB: No, I don’t even know how to lie.

 

KR: Everyone can do it. I believe it’s something anyone can get into at any age; it’s really just about being prepared. But there’s a weird feeling when I really get into a character, on stage or in front of a camera – everything else disappears. There are no thoughts beyond what’s happening in that moment, and then you just disappear. That’s the best feeling ever. Like being “in the zone,” the way athletes talk about it.

 

 

FB: You’ve also said an actor should live a full life because you need something to draw from. In your 20s, do you feel like you’re still building the life you’ll eventually draw from?

 

KR: I think you’re building on life until the day you die. Everyone you meet has had different experiences than you – you learn from them, they learn from you, and everyone brings something unique to acting. That’s what makes art so beautiful: it’s always unique to the person. It’s also why AI is awful, it’ll never have that. I think I’ll be learning and experiencing new things until the very end, hopefully.

 

FB: You take the craft seriously, but you’ve also said it’s important to have fun while playing. Is that combination important to how you work?

 

KR: It is, but it’s not always easy – you don’t always find a director who’ll meet you halfway. Megan [Park] was unique in that she’d really let us do our own thing after a little while. We’d give her a scene the way it was written a few times, and then she’d say, “All right cool, now do your thing.” Having fun brings a freshness to it. I’m so lucky to get to do this amazing thing, and if I’m miserable doing it, what am I doing?

 

FB: You trained in theatre before moving to screen work in Nimrods and then Sterling Point. What was the biggest thing about working on camera that theatre couldn’t have prepared you for?

 

KR: You have a microphone attached to you, and you’re performing for a camera a foot away – versus on stage, where you’re performing for people a hundred feet back who need to see and hear everything. Even a whisper has to be cheated so it reaches the back row. On camera, the camera sees everything – twitch your eye and it catches it.

 

Traditionally trained theatre actors often struggle to adjust out of that technique when they move to film, because you really have to pull back. I used to get in trouble for not projecting enough on stage, and then on camera they’d ask me to bring it down.

 

FB: Sterling Point went from a new YA series to something people are genuinely obsessed with. Did you have any idea while making it that it would be this big?

 

KR: No. Honestly, I thought there was no way we’d get a second season. It’s hard watching your own work, I’m hypercritical of it. You tear yourself apart more than anyone else would.

 

I hoped people would like it, and I thought we did a great job. At the end of the day, we made good friends. But I didn’t expect it to blow up like it did, even though I probably should have. Megan [Park], Ella [Rubin], and everyone attached are such heavyweights in terms of talent, and they’re all beautiful people – everyone loves a beautiful person. Even if everything else had gone wrong, I think people would’ve stayed just to watch Ella, Jacob [Whiteduck-Lavoie], Amélie [Hoeferle], and Bo [Bragason].

 

FB: Do you think the response is partly down to the cast? One of the biggest differences for me is that the teenagers actually sound like teenagers – the dialogue feels natural, instead of technically-teens-but-they-sound-like-adults.

 

KR: That’s partly Megan [Park] letting us really live in the characters ourselves, and partly our script/line producer, Raffi Donatich. She’s phenomenal. She gets dialogue on a human level, and she’d really work with our improv. I’d throw something out that wasn’t quite landing, and she’d rework it on the spot until we’d basically written a whole scene together.

 

The show wouldn’t be what it is without her, and the same goes for everyone attached. It felt like a perfect storm. Part of it, too, is that we were all still pretty young – I’m closer to fifty now than I used to be.

 

FB: You’re not there yet, it’s okay.

 

KR: Feels close. We’ll see how my improv is next season.

FB: I heard you originally auditioned for Ellis before being brought back for Connor. What made the producers land on you for Connor?

 

KR: Jacob [Whiteduck-Lavoie] is perfect as Ellis – I don’t think I could’ve played him as well. They needed a twin brother, and Ella and I look similar enough, so they brought me in. I think I brought a bit more humour to the role than Jacob would have, but watching his Ellis now, I think, “Yeah, I didn’t stand a chance.” It was an interesting exercise switching perspective from lover to brother.

 

FB: Connor is funny and charming, but there’s real insecurity underneath him. How did you find that voice, and did you want audiences to see that vulnerability?

 

KR: I definitely did. Funny characters are hard, because nobody’s just funny – there’s always more going on underneath. I brought my own experience to Connor: I use humour to cover up anxiety or feeling bummed out, as an easy way to avoid fully addressing things. I wanted that to show.

 

He’s turning 18, at a really critical point in his life, and I don’t think anyone that age knows what they’re doing. It felt important to convey that, even if it just helps someone relate to him and recognise it’s something everyone goes through.

 

FB: Do you think Connor uses that humour to hide something specific – anxiety, like you said?

 

KR: I think he feels like an outsider. He watches Annie find a place and a family she feels connected to, and he doesn’t get that same realisation – he’s one of the few characters who doesn’t have a breakthrough over the course of the show.

 

I think next season, him wanting to find his birth parents is a big step: it’s him confronting the fact that he doesn’t feel like he belongs, and actually doing something about it.

 

“I use humour to cover up anxiety or feeling bummed out, as an easy way to avoid fully addressing things. I wanted that to show.”

 

FB: Random question, but some moments between Connor and Sully made me wonder if there was a vibe. Can you say anything about that?

 

KR: Nikko [Angelo Hinayo] and I send each other edits of Sully and Connor constantly. I adore Nico, one of my favourite people. We’ll talk for hours. We’ve seen what people are posting, and we’ve talked about it. The issue is there are so many bigger storylines that it’d be hard to fit in – so start a petition fellas.

 

FB: Season two, why not?

 

KR: I’d love that. I’ve already said I don’t think Connor’s straight – I think he’s just non-descriptive about it, not someone who likes to choose. I’d love to see that play out, especially opposite someone as good as Sully – the “I can fix him” of it all.

 

Connor is sexually ambiguous at the end of the day – he wants a Camp Rock–themed birthday party – and Sully is just fully themselves. I’ve seen people call Connor “super bro-y” and think, really? But even just their friendship is something we don’t see enough of on TV: a femme gay man close friends with a masculine straight guy. I think the writers and Megan know where they want to take it.

 

FB: Now that season two’s confirmed, what was your reaction when you got the news?

 

KR: I wasn’t expecting it that soon – I was told it’d take 20 to 28 days while they crunched the numbers, which made sense; it’s a business decision for Amazon.

 

When I found out I’d gotten cast as Connor in the first place, I was in bed early on the West Coast when Megan called from the East Coast. She said, “Is this Keen? It’s Megan Park – I just wanted to tell you, you got Connor.” And I just said, “Oh, wow.” No emotion. I tend to react like that to good news, I get weirdly down afterward.

 

For the season two news, Megan FaceTimed me and asked if her daughter Winnie – who I’d hung out with on set, along with her son Benny – could sing me a song from a play they’d just seen. The camera panned to Winnie, who said, “We got season two.” I said, “Holy shit,” then immediately apologised. But she got me, I was genuinely thrilled.

 

FB: What are you most excited to explore with Connor in season two?

 

KR: Him addressing, more seriously, that he feels like he doesn’t belong – “I’m growing up, I need to figure out what I’m doing.” Maybe Sully pushes him to open up, or a moment with Ramona, or Annie calling him out.

 

I think it’ll be his most important development: learning he can actually express himself to the people around him, sober.

 

FB: You grew up on a farm. What was it like growing up away from Hollywood?

 

KR: I grew up in a rural farming community – a lot of dairy farms, milking cows, drinking unprocessed milk, which apparently isn’t great for you. It felt like growing up like any other kid – I didn’t realise there was any difference between what my dad did and what my neighbour’s dad did.

 

FB: So you thought every dad was an Avenger?

 

KR: I had no idea what he actually did. You don’t see your parent as anything other than “my dad” until something shifts the picture. It clicked for me when a kid who’d been mean to me suddenly asked if I could get my dad to sign a Funko Pop. I said no – and after that, I noticed kids being nicer to me.

 

I was a pretty rambunctious kid, so that shift was how I realised something had changed.

FB: You’ve said your dad believes in paying your dues, and you did a lot of training and auditioning before your break. Does that make the “nepo baby” conversation easier to deal with, or does it still get under your skin?

 

KR: It comes with the territory. It can be hard – having your effort and accomplishments diminished by a single word is difficult – but people are allowed to feel however they feel. I’ve never been under the illusion that people wouldn’t have opinions about it.

 

All I can do is keep preparing for the next role and hope the work speaks for itself eventually. I think what speaks loudest about a career, ultimately, is the work itself.

 

FB: Before acting, I heard you were making jewellery. Where does that hands-on, maker side of you come from?

 

KR: Not being able to read. I’m very dyslexic, and I didn’t read well until later in life. I was a distraction in class, so they’d send me out into the woods and tell me not to leave the property line.

 

I grew up upstate, on a farm, so it was basically, “Keen, go play with the sheep,” and I was like “Absolutely.” That’s where the hands-on, creative approach started: finding other ways to get gratification since academics weren’t working for me.

 

FB: Are you still making jewellery, or has acting taken over completely?

 

KR: Acting’s taken the front seat for now – jewellery-making really needs a studio. I know how to blacksmith, though. I feel like I’m just dropping the weirdest shit into these interviews, slowly drip-feeding the fact that I have all these random, niche interests. Like, “Oh yeah, I know how to work a forge.” I’d like to try wax casting eventually, but I just don’t have the time for it right now.

 

“I’d like to do something sad, something that makes people walk away in tears. That’s kind of what I’m looking for.”

 

FB: Are you enjoying seeing yourself in edits and all the attention, or is it more of a don’t want to open the apps right now feeling?

 

KR: It’s nice seeing people enjoy the characters. I haven’t actually been recognised in public yet – I look pretty different from Connor when I’m out, usually with a beard. Even at events, people have mistaken me for Ella and Amelie’s plus-one – someone will gush to them about the show while I’m standing right there, and I’ll go, “I was in the show too.”

 

It’s flattering, honestly, even if it still doesn’t feel entirely real. It’s a strange thing, having people make content about you on their own time, but I’m just happy people enjoy him.

 

FB: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received that you still use?

 

KR: Basically it was like, “Fuck them.” Something like: “Sure, it’s not going well now, but one day it will.” Whatever motivates you to keep going, use it, even if it’s not purely positive. Spite works as well as anything, as long as it keeps you moving. And: “In time, this too shall pass.” I really like that one.

 

FB: What does success mean to you now?

 

KR: Being able to speak your mind, and still being able to keep going.

 

FB: Last question. If Sterling Point is the project that introduces people to Keen Ruffalo, what do you hope your next project teaches them about you?

 

KR: Honestly – “This kid’s a fucking bummer.” I’d like to do something sad, something that makes people walk away in tears. That’s kind of what I’m looking for.