{"id":256522,"date":"2026-08-08T20:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/08\/keen-ruffalo-says-covid-depression-made-him-become-an-actor\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:00:11","slug":"keen-ruffalo-says-covid-depression-made-him-become-an-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/08\/keen-ruffalo-says-covid-depression-made-him-become-an-actor\/","title":{"rendered":"Keen Ruffalo says &#8216;COVID depression&#8217; made him become an actor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2026-08-08\" datetime=\"1786219211\" pubdate=\"\">8 August 2026<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p>Keen Ruffalo ditched his fashion design studies to become an actor after he suffered from &#8220;COVID depression&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">Keen Ruffalo and his dad, Mark Ruffalo<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old entertainer dropped out of college after the pandemic sent him and his freshman-year cohort home, and seeing how happy performing made his 58-year-old dad, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/mark-ruffalo\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,mark-ruffalo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mark Ruffalo<\/a>, inspired Keen to abandon his dreams of being a fashion designer and follow in his footsteps.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing on NBC&#8217;s The Today Show on Friday (07.08.26), the Sterling Point cast member recalled: &#8220;It was around COVID, and it got to that point where everyone\u2019s really burning out from being inside. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was starting my freshman year of college just before COVID happened, and I was going for fashion design originally, and I dropped out not long after.<\/p>\n<p>                      \t\t\t<!-- Dailymotion player (contact: Kutay.vardar@dailymotion.com) --><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We ended up kind of separating for COVID, and yeah, I got the COVID depression, as many people did. And I needed a change, and I was lost at the time, and so I saw that acting made my dad so happy and I was like, &#8216;Listen, I need to try something new.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Avengers star Mark backed his son&#8217;s career switch but still asked if he was sure.<\/p>\n<p>\nLaughing, Keen said: &#8220;Yeah, he was definitely supportive, but he was like, &#8216;You sure you want to do this?'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nMark and his 53-year-old wife, Sunrise Coigney, are also parents to daughters Bella, 21, and 18-year-old Odette.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn January, the Crime 101 alum said he would not rule out swapping his illustrious acting career for &#8220;doing something good&#8221; for millions of Americans as a politician.<\/p>\n<p>\nMark told Us Weekly: &#8220;It isn\u2019t on my game card right now, but who knows. I mean, you never say never.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I mean, I spent a lot of time in that world, and acting &#8211; it\u2019s for the people. So, I love the people, and politicians could be doing something good for the people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nHe then lauded New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, 34, who ran as a Democratic Socialist and made history during his swearing-in ceremony on January 1 when he became the first prominent US politician to take the oath on a Quran.<\/p>\n<p>\nMark said: &#8220;Seeing Mamdani\u2019s win in New York has really excited me about what\u2019s possible in the United States right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Mickey 17 cast member &#8211; who has been a fierce critic of 80-year-old US President Donald Trump &#8211; believes the country needs a new political direction that serves working people, as the Democratic and Republican parties have &#8220;become completely captured by corporations&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nMark said: &#8220;It\u2019s bulls***. And the people in America are suffering. If the people in America weren\u2019t suffering, we wouldn\u2019t be where we are right now. <\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;You know, it\u2019s a failure on both parties. They become completely captured by corporations, both parties. And it\u2019s time for a new America that is for the working people who were the plurality of this country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/keen-ruffalo-says-covid-depression-made-become-actor-1448758.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>8 August 2026 Keen Ruffalo ditched his fashion design studies to become an actor after he suffered from &#8220;COVID depression&#8221;. Keen Ruffalo and his dad, Mark Ruffalo The 25-year-old entertainer dropped out of college after the pandemic sent him and his freshman-year cohort home, and seeing how happy performing made his 58-year-old dad, Mark Ruffalo, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":256523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[54,6098,5725,6097,12984],"class_list":{"0":"post-256522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-keen-ruffalo","10":"tag-mark-ruffalo","11":"tag-sunrise-coigney","12":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}