Mark Ruffalo is dedicating his new drama series to his late brother Scott.

In 2008, Scott, a successful hairdresser in Beverly Hills, was shot at his home before dying one week later and Mark said that playing twins in his HBO project 'I Know This Much Is True' was inspired by his late sibling.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, he said: ''I'm the type of actor that likes to draw on my experiences, and my brother will always be a big part of that. Scott's in all this and in all of my work in some way or another.''

And Mark - who has three teenage children with his wife Sunrise Coigney - said family is the most important thing in the world to him, especially now during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: ''A pandemic like this strips away all of the trappings and busyness of our lives and leaves us with what really is of value, and that's family. But family is also difficult and brings challenges, and exposes all our vulnerabilities and our weaknesses.

''For me nothing's more meaningful, more painful, more conflicted, more challenging, and more rewarding than the relationships that I've had with my own family members. And that's particularly apropos for the moment we find ourselves in.''

In the new drama, Mark plays Dominick Birdsey and his mentally-ill brother Thomas and he admitted that portraying schizophrenic was difficult.

Mark explained that part of preparing for the role involved, ''going down into the heart of this mental illness, studying it, and imagining that life - hearing voices, being heavily medicated for years''.

He added: ''I learned how difficult it is to live with the constant barrage of negative voices and how difficult it is to concentrate, how difficult it is to discern between what's real and what isn't. But because the world sees Thomas as mentally ill he doesn't have the same kind of expectations on him. In a lot of ways, Thomas is much freer than Dominick is, much more able to express himself, much less bound to ideas of manhood, masculinity, domination and control.''