It is hard to look at Mark Ruffalo’s face – that rumpled, beautiful thing – and not feel immediately more relaxed. He oozes calm, as well as an easy charm that draws you in. He gives the impression of stable rootedness, unusual for a man who has been working in the realm of the Hollywood A-list for the past 15 years. How does he do it?
Maybe it’s because his ascent has been the classic slow-and-steady tale. I first saw him in Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count On Me (2000), as Laura Linney’s feckless but charming younger brother – a commanding but unshowy performance, propelled by that inner calm. (His characters always seem to know and understand themselves on a deeper, quieter level.) A pop psychologist might suggest it’s also this quality that has made him such an outspoken environmental activist: he has campaigned against fracking for years, and for access to clean water via his charity, Water Defense; he is also vocally pro-choice. His Twitter feed is a delight: as well as giving excellent book recommendations, he recently made a noise about the lack of merchandise for Black Widow, Marvel’s main female character, when there was plenty for the men. Is he perfect? He might be.
Ruffalo stood out in frothy romcoms 13 Going On 30 and Just Like Heaven, and was Oscar-nominated for both The Kids Are All Right and, more recently, Foxcatcher. That he gets to play mild-mannered Bruce Banner (and his alter ego, the Hulk) in Marvel’s multimillion-dollar Avengers movies is a treat, after years of gloss-free projects. Naturally, he carries it off. I can’t wait to see what he does next.
