How a sandwich maker became best buds with Mark Ruffalo

It was February 2024 and a normal workday for Michael Bertrando at Kennett Square’s Sam’s Sub Shop when his phone rang. The sandwich maker removed his gloves and saw an unfamiliar phone number flashing on the phone screen. He usually avoids them, but decided to answer this one. It wasn’t spam. A Heery Loftus casting agent was asking if he’d be interested in being a stand-in for actor Mark Ruffalo in the HBO crime drama “Task.”

“If I’m being honest, I didn’t want to do it at first because of the sub shop,” Bertrando said. “But it’s a good opportunity, obviously. So, I took them up on the offer.” Later that month, he appeared for camera tests at Sun Center Studios in Aston, where he met “Task” directors Jeremiah Zagar and Salli Richardson-Whitfield. By the beginning of March, Bertrando had landed the biggest acting gig of his career.

In the past, he had appeared in commercials for Mercedes, McDonald’s, Nintendo, Oscar Meyer and other international brands. After travelling the world as a professional clown, he worked the improv comedy circuit in New York and Chicago. He eventually moved back to Kennett Square to help his ageing parents run the family’s sandwich shop, leaving him with little time to pursue an acting career. “You get to a certain age and your family’s getting older, you have your parents to think about, and we have the family business. I kind of got bogged down,” Bertrando said.

Years ago, he would’ve jumped at the “Task” role, but he wasn’t sure he could simultaneously work on set and manage the shop. He is glad he agreed. “It fuel-injected me,” he said. “After talking to Ruffalo and the other crew members, the experience really put a flame under my nose.”

As Ruffalo’s stand-in, Bertrando shadowed the actor, who plays FBI agent Tom Brandis in the Delco-set, cops-and-criminals series. Every day Ruffalo was on set, Bertrando was right beside him. He performed stunt work for Ruffalo, and the two bonded over their Italian heritage, Bertrando’s travels as a professional clown and their common start in theatre and commercials.

“Ruffalo just talked me up so much,” Bertrando said. “He would be watching me on the monitor, and then say, ‘Michael, I’m going to steal what you just did there.’ And then I’d joke and say I was his acting coach.”

With encouragement from Ruffalo, Zagar and creator Brad Ingelsby, Bertrando even auditioned for a speaking role and landed the role of “FBI Office No. 1″ in Episode 5, which premiered on Sunday. He was thrilled, of course, but he had one other goal in mind. Bertrando wanted to spotlight Sam’s Sub Shop.

Off camera, Bertrando introduced Ruffalo and the rest of the crew to the delights of his hometown, including specialty hoagies and cheesesteaks from the 80-year-old eatery, which is owned by his mother Sandra, Bertrando. Her father, Sam Frabriso, opened the shop 80 years ago. Her husband Bert Bertrando, Michael’s father, helps out, mostly chatting with customers or slicing tomatoes.

“Ruffalo and [the crew] were fascinated with the stories about my mom, the crazy customers, and everything else,” he said.

Ruffalo ordered Sam’s Sub Shop for the crew, and Bertrando gifted hats and other merch to the wardrobe and production design departments in hopes they could land some screen time. “I played two angles,” Bertrando said. “I had my acting angle, and then I had my family business angle. I kind of succeeded in both, and it was a great experience all around.”

Along with Wawa coffee and Rita’s Italian Ice, Sam’s Sub Shop menus appear throughout the series. A photograph of Bertrando and Ruffalo eating the shop’s subs adorns the deli’s entrance walls. When Ruffalo asked what people say when they pass by the framed image, Bertrando said, “People keep asking me how I know Paul Rudd.”

Tribune News Service