Mark Ruffalo encourages voting after winning first acting Emmy

I Know This Much Is True star Mark Ruffalo had the presidential election on his mind while accepting his first-ever Emmy for acting at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night.

The Kenosha-born 52-year-old managed to beat out ‘beautiful people’ Hugh Jackman, Jeremy Irons, Paul Mescal, and Jeremy Pope for the outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movie trophy.

First, Mark thanked HBO, director Derek Cianfrance, the crew, and he vowed to lend his Emmy to his castmates: ‘I’m sending it to you for part of the year for the rest of my life.’

Ruffalo said his wife of a decade Sunrise Coigney and their three children – Keen, 19; Bella, 15; and Odette, 12 – have taught him ‘we are stronger together when we love each other and we respect each other’s diversity.’

‘Our story is about family. It’s about a man fighting for his brother, who is living with mental illness. It’s a story that’s common throughout so much of the United States in the world today,’ the Dark Waters actor explained.

‘And it asks a big question: How are we going to deal and honor and take care of each other and our most vulnerable people. And we do that with love. And we do that with compassion, and we do that by fighting for them, and that’s what we have to do today.

‘We have to come together with love for each other. And if you have privilege, you have to fight for those who are less fortunate and more vulnerable. And that’s what’s great about America – a diversity.’.

Mark continued: ‘So we have a big important moment ahead of us. Are we going to be a country of hate and division and a country only for a certain kind of people? Or are we going to be one of love and strength and fighting for all of us, all of us, to have the American dream and the pursuit of life and liberty and love and happiness in this great country of ours. That’s what we’re facing right now. So get out and vote. Make a plan and vote for love and compassion and kindness.’

After winning, Ruffalo recommended via Twitter that people take on the Sierra Club’s plan of action of writing letters and making phone calls to encourage undecided and non-voters to take part in Democracy.

The former bartender shed 20lbs to play Dominick Birdsey and then gained 30lbs to play his identical twin Thomas – who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia -six weeks later in the critically-acclaimed six-part HBO miniseries.

I Know This Much Is True – based upon Wally Lamb’s 1998 novel – also featured Melissa Leo, Juliette Lewis, Kathryn Hahn, and Rosie O’Donnell.

Mark previously won Emmy gold for co-executive producing HBO series The Normal Heart in 2014.

When Ruffalo’s name was called during the virtual ABC telecast, his wife Sunny jumped up and down four times and cried as they sat on the couch at their Sullivan County home in Upstate New York.