The bestMark Ruffalomovies and TV shows include a strong mix of indie favorites and mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. After spending time as a teenager working in theatrical productions, Ruffalo made his small screen debut in 1989 onCBS Summer Playhouseand then picked up a few small movie roles and television appearances. However, it wasn’t until 2000 that Ruffalo began to pick up attention, starting with his role in the Oscar-nominated filmYou Can Count on Me.
Ruffalo broke out with roles in movies likeEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mindand supporting roles in bigger Hollywood fare like the Jennifer Garner movie13 Going on 30. In the 2010s,Ruffalo began to split his time between awards-caliber films and blockbusters. He neared Oscar nominations forThe Kids Are All Right, Foxcatcher,andSpotlightwhile starring as Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2023, he earned another Oscar nomination forPoor Thingsafter bringing Hulk to thesmall screen inShe-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
In 2019, Mark Ruffalo joined the cast of the Todd Haynes legal thrillerDark Waters.The film tells the true-life story of Robert Bilott, an attorney who sued the chemical manufacturing corporation DuPontafter they contaminated a town with unregulated chemicals. Ruffalo took on the lead role in the film as Bilott. The case started when 190 cows on a local farm died of mysterious causes, and Bilott learned DuPont was dumping chemicals into a landfill. The film is the case of one man taking on a very powerful company and winning.
They also praised Ruffalo’s acting, and he earned nominations from the Satellite Awards.
Joining Ruffalo in the cast is a huge list of big names, including Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Bill Pullman, Victor Garber, and more. Critics praised the film’s script and how it pays tribute to the victims. They also praised Ruffalo’s acting, and he earned nominations from the Satellite Awards and Women in Film Critics Circle Awards for his performance.
In 2010,Mark Ruffalo got the chance to play a role in a Martin Scorsese movie. InShutter Island,based on the Dennis Lehane novel, Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio star as two US Marshals who arrive at the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane on Shutter Island. They are there to investigate a missing person’s report and discover how this person could have escaped from the supposedly inescapable island. However, DiCaprio’s Teddy has dark secrets he has to uncover, and Ruffalo’s Chuck is not who he claims to be.
Shutter Island Ending Explained (In Detail)
Confused about the ending of Shutter Island? Here’s what really happened and what the ending of Martin Scorsese’s mind-bending movie means.
The film was different for Scorsese fans: a mysterious thriller with twists and turns that were unlike much of his more straightforward efforts. It received a 68% Rotten Tomatoes rating, slightly lower than a Scorsese film, but it has its fans, who appreciate what the director did with more genre fare. Despite the lackluster reviews,Shutter Islandwas a box office success, making $294.8 million on an $80 million budget.
8The Normal Heart (2014)
Alexander “Ned” Weeks
Mark Ruffalo took on the lead role in the HBO exclusive movieThe Normal Heart, directed byAmerican Horror Storycreator Ryan Murphy. Based on the Larry Kramer play of the same name,the story follows the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984. Ruffalo stars as Ned Weeks, the founder of a large HIV advocacy group. However, the conflict comes from Ned’s preference to make public confrontations rather than more private strategies, leading to disputes with his associates and his closeted lover.
The film shows how difficult it was for people seeking to bring awareness to the epidemic with both the government (who didn’t think it was a priority) and even the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) organization, who wanted to keep things quiet. Critics praised the movie, awarding it a 94% fresh rating. It earned 13 Emmy nominations, winning Outstanding Television Movie, while Mark Ruffalo was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor. Ruffalo was nominated for a Golden Globes Award, while co-star Matt Bomer won.
Mark Ruffalo earned an Oscar nomination for his performance in the 2023 Yorgos Lanthimos film, which is a twist on the classicFrankensteinstory. In this tale, Willem Dafoe plays a mad scientist named Dr. Godwin Baxter, a man who brought in a medical student named Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) to look over a nearly mute woman in his house.It turns out the body is a woman who died by suicide when she jumped off a bridge, while her brain is that of the fetus she was pregnant with, making her an adult with an infant’s mind.
Poor Things Cast & Character Guide
Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things successfully combines drama, comedy, and horror, and counts on the talents of a cast full of well-known names.
Bella grows in intelligence quickly and soon meets Duncan Wedderburn, a debauched lawyer with whom she runs off. Despite its bizarre nature,Poor Thingswas a box office success, making $117.6 million on a $35 million budget. It also has a 93% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, and Emma Stone won her second Oscar Award for her role as Bella in the movie.Poor Thingsearned 11 Oscar nominations and won four of them.
David Fincher told the story of the Zodiac Killer in his 2007 mystery thrillerZodiac. While he never actually revealed who the killer really was (this is still a cold case), the story was more about the investigation by both the police and the newspaper journalists trying to uncover the truth. While Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal played the investigative journalists (Paul Avery and Robert Graysmith),Mark Ruffalo played the main police inspector in charge of the case, Dave Toschi.
Critics awardedZodiaca 90% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, with praise going toward the script and the atmosphere Fincher created.
Ruffalo received praise for his performance, which he created by meeting the real Dave Toschi and getting as much information as he could from the police officer about the case before showing up to act in the movie (viaIf Magazine). Critics awardedZodiaca 90% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, with praise going toward the script and the atmosphere Fincher created. While the Oscars and Golden Globes ignored it, the film finished on many top 10 lists that year and earned three Satellite Awards.
Mark Ruffalo was part of the multi-nominated Oscar movieSpotlightin 2015. The film is named after the United States' longest-running investigative journalist unit -The Boston Globe's “Spotlight” team. This movie focuses on one of their biggest investigationswhen they began to uncover a decades-long coverup of child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. The film takes a slightly fictional look at the case, but it is based on true stories pulled fromThe Globe, which earned a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
Ruffalo was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
Mark Ruffalo is Michael Rezendes, a journalist on the Spotlight team who sets out to interview a lawyer who originally exposed the allegations and who helped break open the case. Ruffalo excelled as the reporter, more interested in getting the story out to save future victims than winning awards for his work. With a high 97% fresh rating,Spotlightearned six Oscar nominations, winning Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, while Ruffalo was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
Mark Ruffalo had yet to truly break out when he appeared in the Michel Gondry 2004 dramaEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This movie was a sci-fi drama where a procedure exists where a person can have people or events removed from their minds. Written by Charlie Kaufman, Jim Carrey, and Kate Winslet star as Joel and Clementine, a couple who meet each other and fall in love, only to realize later that they had done this many times before and things always ended with their minds being wiped.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Ending & Real Meaning Explained
Michael Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has an ending that’s both ambiguous and satisfying. Here’s what happens and what it means.
The supporting cast includes Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Tom Wilkinson. They all work for the organization (Lacuna) that conducts the memory-wiping procedure. While this is Joel and Clementine’s story, there is a subplot with these other characters who are also involved in their own memory-wiping controversies. With a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score, the film received two Oscar nominations, winning for Best Original Screenplay. While Ruffalo’s role was small, it was a sign of things to come.
Mark Ruffalo took on the role of Paul Hatfield in the 2010 indie comedy-dramaThe Kids Are All Right. In this movie, Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as a married lesbian couple who live in Los Angeles with their children, who they gave birth to using sperm donors. The story picks up with their teenage son, Laser (Josh Hutcherson), who wants to meet his biological father and sets out to find him.This sperm donor is Paul, a restaurant owner who is willing to get to know Laser and his family.
Critics fell in love with the story, awarding the movie a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score while praising the script about a troubled marriage, without relying on making it a “message movie” about lesbian marriage. It finished the year on several critics' top 10 lists, while Bening won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and the movie won the Best Motion Picture - Movie or Comedy Award. It also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Film, while Bening and Ruffalo earned Oscar nominations as well.
Most of Mark Ruffalo’s best work has been in movies, both on TV and on television and streaming. In 2020, Ruffalo took on a difficult role in the HBO miniseriesI Know This Much Is True. Based on the 1998 Wally Lamb novel,Ruffalo stars as twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey.Thomas is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and lives mostly at peace while medicated. However, during one episode, he thinks he is protesting the Gulf War and cuts off his own hand.
This brings Dominick back into his life, as he tries to help his brother see through his problems and help free him from a mental hospital that he knows is ineffectual in helping him. The series had six episodes and showed how Dominick used his family’s tragic past to help navigate himself to a more promising future. Ruffalo received praise for his acting in the miniseries, winning the Primetime Emmy, Golden Globes, and Screen Actors Guild Awards for his performance.
Mark Ruffalo’s most famous role for most movie fans is that of Bruce Banner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton as The Hulk inThe Avengersand has been acting in the role ever since. He most recently appeared in 2023 inShe-Hulk: Attorney at Lawand is still playing Hulk over a decade after making his debut in the role. However, the best movie that he appeared in as Hulk was the 2019 blockbusterAvengers: Endgame.
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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings(post-credits)
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She-Hulk: Attorney at Law(3 Episodes)
This was the last part of the original Avengers Saga as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes battled Thanos to save the planet and the universe. In this movie,Mark Ruffalotook on a very different role as the smart Hulk, as he had gained control over Hulk’s persona and used Bruce Banner’s brains and Hulk’s strength to help stop Thanos and save the world. The movie was a monster success, making $2.799 billion, the highest-grossing film of all time until 2021.
