Mark Ruffalo has come by his good reputation honestly, consistently exuding the kind of genuine warmth and low-key joie de vivre that would draw in anybody. That is, except in his latest Oscar-nominated role, in Yorgos Lanthimos’s sexually charged, coming-of-age romp, Poor Things. Ruffalo plays a haughty, obnoxious buffoon of a man named Duncan Wedderburn who seizes upon an opportunity to take advantage of Emma Stone’s inexperienced, inquisitive Bella. When he realizes he can’t control a young woman he clearly thinks of as property, Duncan becomes a tantrum-throwing, hilarious idiot in Ruffalo’s capable hands.

He’s so good as the character he threatens to walk away with the entire movie, but as he explains on this week’s Little Gold Men podcast, he had some initial fears about taking on such a comic role. From there, though, he happily immersed himself in all things dandy gentleman. He also shares the gratitude he feels for his fourth Oscar nomination and being part of an awards season that involves acclaimed performances by several of his longtime friends and former costars like Robert Downey Jr. and Annette Bening. Listen below, where you can also read excerpts from the conversation.

Vanity Fair: Watching you and your Poor Things cast has been enjoyable from the outside looking in. It just seems like you all enjoy each other.

Mark Ruffalo: We really do. We had such a great time. And a lot of it was just informed by this three-week rehearsal process that was really just us playing and goofing off and really being such idiots in front of each other there was just nothing more that we could do to embarrass ourselves. It just made us very intimate and feel very safe together.

Did anything from the rehearsal infuse performance, or was it just the family dynamic that you built?

It was a great place to try out ideas, you know? We all had this script living in us still that was already giving you an enormous amount of direction. The characters are written so specifically, the dialogue's so specific, the world-building… it can sound like, “Oh, you guys just played around for three weeks,” but we were all sort of trying things out. And it was such a gift because I don't know that I could have really come up with that kind of outrageous physical comedy, and that dialect, just every dimension of him without that time.

Is there something especially fun about inhabiting Duncan? Some of the tantrums you get to throw are delightful.

He's such a cock. A cock-a-doodle-doo. I've been playing pretty demure nice guy characters, fighting for what's right. I've had more Duncan kind of characters early on in my career, but it's been a long time since I've actually gotten to just be the biggest asshole, narcissist child. So insecure, so outrageous, so entitled, so bratty. He has no boundaries. He does whatever he wants, all impulsively. He's so entitled and spoiled. And to throw off all of our social conditioning, especially now when we've all become like this surveillance system of each other and all of each other's behaviors. To break free from being well-behaved was so delicious.

Willem [Dafoe] was saying you guys were trying to make each other laugh. What did you enjoy about watching some of your castmates do what they're doing in this?

Oh, my God. We would all be showing up on our days off to watch. It was just so inspiring and we were all rooting for each other so deeply. It was so playful in rehearsal, so to encourage people to have that same kind of freedom on set, which is really hard to do. And, Willem, I'll never forget, my first day, he's like, ‘You're really gonna do that? I thought you were just doing that in rehearsal. Bold.’

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One of the things I love seeing during awards season is people you've worked with throughout the years who are also a part of the conversation this year. I love seeing people that genuinely like each other, run into each other over and over again. Can you talk a little bit about [The Kids Are Alright costars] Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mr. Downey Jr.? What has that been like?

It's very moving to me, actually. It's hard to do this, and it's hard to stick it out. And it's hard for the industry to stick it out with you, you know? I do feel like this is a really special year. I've seen every performance, which I rarely do, and I love them. To see Robert, like, [he’s] one of the all time greats, and he's done great work for a long time. And to see him being lauded the way he should be and should have been a long time ago is really sweet, and I love him. He's so generous and been so generous and kind to me over the years and the greatest cheerleader to everyone. He helps a lot of people, he really does. Like, people who have gone down the same road as him. No one really knows that about him, but he helps a lot of people in the most generous, humble way, and that's special.

How have you maintained those friendships over the years?

Well, [Julianne], Julie and I were friends first, and then Sunrise [Ruffalo’s wife] met her and basically stole her from me. Sunny says “They come for you, Mark, and they stay for me.” And that there's some truth to that. We go out to dinner with them, we hang out with her and [Moore’s husband] Bart, and it's really sweet. And Annette I don't see as much but whenever I see her, there's just an enormous amount of love and respect. And Robert, we're on a text chain together. We FaceTime together, I've known Robert since before I even had my first gig, really. I've known him since the nineties. And so It's been really cool to grow up in his shadow in a way and to have him lead the way in a lot of ways for a lot of us actors. And to be here side by side with them is really sweet.