Mark Ruffalo recently appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and talked about his early acting days. Sharing a funny story, he reminisced about fellow actor Benicio del Toro. He revealed that the two were in an acting class together, and their very first class turned out to be unforgettable.

Mark Ruffalo reveals a funny acting class incident with Benicio del Toro

Mark Ruffalo said that Benicio del Toro was effortlessly charming in their acting classes together. The Hulk actor went on and described his former classmate’s signature look and said, “He was the coolest dude. He was the Puerto Rican James Dean… had his cigarette pack rolled up, his little St. Christopher medal, white T-shirt, cool, distressed jeans.”

Ruffalo continued down memory lane and revealed one of their very first assignments together. It was to take the lyrics of a song and deliver them as a “serious” monologue.

During this task, Benicio del Toro decided to take up the song “Light My Fire” by The Doors. Ruffalo said that Toro was able to impress everyone with its delivery. Reflecting on the same, he said, “Our first assignment was to take the lyrics of a song and say them to someone—act them out in a serious way. He did ‘Come on, baby, light my fire’ … and it was amazing. I was like, ‘That guy is a star. I don’t even know what I’m doing here.’”

Questioning him further, Fallon asked what song Ruffalo picked for the same assignment. The actor confessed he did an impression of the “Happy Birthday to You” song.

Ruffalo insisted that his performance was “horrible” compared to what Benicio had done before him. However, Fallon was adamant about praising Ruffalo for how he tackled the task with a song that has very less lyrics in it.