Mark Ruffalo says he was diagnosed with a brain tumour after dreaming about it

Mark Ruffalo found out he had a brain tumour after having an unusual dream, the Poor Things star has revealed.

The actor, 56, was diagnosed with a benign tumour in 2001, as he recalled during a recent appearance on the Smartless podcast.

Unusually, Ruffalo dreamt about having a brain tumour before he was diagnosed.

"It wasn't like any other dream I'd ever had. It was just like, 'You have a brain tumour.' It wasn't even a voice. It was just pure knowledge, 'You have a brain tumour, and you have to deal with it immediately,'" he said.

Thankfully, Ruffalo, who had an ear infection at the time, decided to seek medical advice following the "intense" dream, leading to the discovery of a mass the size of a golf ball.

Both Ruffalo and the cast doctor he spoke to joked the dream was "crazy", Ruffalo said, but they decided to order a CAT to put his mind at ease and soon discovered the truth.

The actor went on to have surgery to remove the benign tumour, which left him deaf in one ear and saw the left side of his face temporarily paralysed.

"Take my hearing, but let me keep the face and just let me be the father to these kids," he remembers thinking.