On Monday’s (January 22nd) episode of the SmartLess podcast, Mark Ruffalo opened up about being diagnosed with a brain tumor following the release of his 2000 film You Can Count On Me. The Poor Things actor said he had a dream about the tumor before receiving the diagnosis.
“It wasn't like any other dream I'd ever had,” he explained. “It was just like, 'You have a brain tumor.' It wasn't even a voice. It was just pure knowledge, 'You have a brain tumor, and you have to deal with it immediately.'”
Ruffalo got a CAT scan done, and a nurse told him he had “a mass behind his left ear the size of a golf ball.” The tumor was benign, but he still had to have it removed.
Following the surgery, the 13 Going on 30 actor said, “I am completely deaf in one ear, and when I woke up, the left side of my face was totally paralyzed. I couldn’t even close my eye. I was talking out the side of my mouth.” He shared that the paralysis subsided after a year but that he still has trouble hearing.