Mark Ruffalo will soon be seen on the small screen in “Task,” back on HBO in the original drama series debuting Sunday, September 7. Brad Ingelsby’s follow-up to “Mare of Easttown” centers on the “I Know This Much Is True” Emmy winner as an FBI Task Force agent assigned to a string of armed robberies, led by a family man (Tom Pelphrey), who hardly fits the profile of a career criminal.
IndieWire caught up with Ruffalo at the NYC premiere of the series, fresh off the heels of wrapping Lena Dunham’s next feature, “Good Sex,” a few weeks ago in New York City. “I had the best time working with Lena,” Ruffalo told IndieWire. “I love her.”
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“I knew her a little bit when she was younger,” he continued. “But we had the best time, Natalie Portman, Role Model, [and I]. It’s twisted — Lena’s stuff can be very twisted. It’s super sexy, and it’s very funny, and it has a rare quality of a romantic comedy that actually is being romantic and funny.” Role Model, whose real name is Tucker Pillsbury, makes his acting debut in the project.
“He’s going to surprise everybody,” Ruffalo added. He joked, “I mean, I hate him because he was such a natural. God damn you. God damn you, Tucker,” he laughed. “He’s so good in it.”
“Good Sex” follows a 40-year-old couple’s therapist, played by Portman, who finds herself back in the dating game after breaking off a decades-long relationship. The love triangle consists of a successful Manhattan man in his 50s, played by Ruffalo, and a Brooklyn hipster in his 20s, played by Role Model. Netflix bought the rom-com for a reported $55 million and will reportedly skip a theatrical release.
“I really just want people to sit on a couch with their moms and their besties and lean in,” Dunham said in an interview with Variety. “I love watching other filmmakers fight for the theatrical-release element — but I don’t think this will live or die by that.”
In his review of “Task,” Ben Travers writes that the series may “bring to mind Michael Mann’s ‘Heat‘ and Ben Affleck’s ‘The Town,’ or Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The River’ and Ruffalo’s last HBO series, “I Know This Much Is True” — movies, songs, and shows that run bone-deep in their recognition of the distinctions that make us unique, the commonalities that connect us to each other, and the hands of fate that too often make you wonder what could’ve been.”
