Mark Ruffalo wasn't always a household name headlining Marvel movies and Oscar nominees alike.
Indeed, in a recent appearance on the "SmartLess" podcast the Academy Award-nominated actor said he spent the better part of a decade driving around Los Angeles on a dirt bike because buying a car was too expensive.
Ruffalo said that as a young man trying to make it in Hollywood, he had to find ways to stretch his income from bartending. He drove a 1974 Honda XR250 because it cost him only $250 and "I could personally work on [it] when it broke down."
"I couldn't afford a car," he told the hosts. "That was the only way I could get around LA."
On top of that, his living quarters weren't much more luxurious than his ride.
"I was living in a closet for $200 a month," he added. "My whole nut was about $300 a month."
The four-time Academy Award nominee said he spent so much time just barely scraping by before he finally got his big break that he can't explain why he didn't quit.
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"It was a very slow progression," he said. "There's really no reason that I should have tried as long as I did, because that was from 18 to 28."
Ruffalo's career began to pick up as he neared 30, appearing in four films in 1996 and becoming a rom com staple in the early 2000s.
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He has since been nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, most recently for his performance in Best Picture nominee "Poor Things".
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