Mark Ruffalo's biggest problem now? 'Find a babysitter!'
Actor Mark Ruffalo and actress Sunrise Coigney attend NBCUniversal/Focus Features Golden Globes Viewing and After Party sponsored by Chrysler held at The Beverly Hilton hotel on Jan. 16, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California.
By Christopher Polk, Getty Images
How many people can say they found out they were nominated for an Oscar while dropping the kids off at school?
The Kids Are All Right's Mark Ruffalo may be in singular company on that one. "I'm pulled over on the side of a country road. I just dropped my kids off at carpool. I got the news and my phone died. I had no idea! I didn't even know," the best supporting actor nominee tells USA TODAY's Arienne Thompson.
"Honestly, after the Golden Globes I kind of figured, 'Oh, it was a good shot.' I was really – I had no idea. I'm glad that I didn't. I have my hands full with three kids so you don't tend to have as much time on your hands to deal with these things."
His turn as a rakish sperm donor who befriends the teenage children of the lesbian couple he helped impregnate earned him the first Oscar nomination of his career, which he thinks is close to perfection. "I think being nominated is kind of an award," he says. And, even though his children don't fully grasp the nomination, Mark Ruffalo has a simple explanation. "They don't really get it, but I'll just tell them something really special is being given to me."
Unlike the female nominees, he won't have to go on a weeks-long hunt for an Oscar gown, but he does have some planning to do to prepare for the trip from upstate New York where his family lives to Los Angeles for the show. "I got to find a babysitter! It's a long trip back out to Los Angeles, but it's one worth making. I guess I gotta go get this tux dry cleaned."
Before all that though, he'll have to celebrate with his wife, Sunrise Coigney, "who is just weeping with tears of joy."
"We got a bottle of Veuve Clicquot in the refrigerator that we couldn't drink because we had the stomach flu on New Year's Eve, so we're going to bust that baby out tonight!
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