Actor Mark Ruffalo — who has never been shy of slamming Donald Trump — threw shade at the president without saying his name while promoting new sci-fi dystopian comedy “Mickey 17” on Thursday’s episode of “The Tonight Show.”
“I play a petty dictator,” Ruffalo told host Jimmy Fallon of his role as authoritarian politician Kenneth Marshall in Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho’s latest film due out next week.
The “Avengers” star let the comment hang in the air as laughter rippled through the “Tonight Show” audience.
“At the time, we shot it three years ago, and I thought this is over the top,” Ruffalo then said.
Pausing for effect, he added: “And now, I realize it’s totally underplayed.”
The cheers and applause grew and Ruffalo cracked: “I mean, I made a documentary.”
Watch here:
Ruffalo and Bong Joon Ho last week told reporters in Seoul, South Korea, that the character wasn’t inspired by Trump, despite rumors that he was.
“As the film portrays various political nightmares and depictions of dictators, viewers appear to project their own history onto them,” said Bong Joon-Ho, per the Yonhap News Agency.
“He is an archetypal petty dictator,” said Ruffalo. “We’ve seen this kind of leader time and time again over the last century. They are all the same — egotistical, fragile, self-centered, and self-serving.”
Ruffalo has for years been a vocal critic of Trump and campaigned for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
“We got our asses kicked,” he admitted following Trump’s victory in November.
“We suffered a great loss,” Ruffalo said. “It’s a loss that touches deeply on so much of what we’ve worked for and we’ve hoped for and dreamed of for such a long time now.”
Watch the trailer for “Mickey 17” here: