Mark Ruffalo’s frustrated howl was the finest hour at the Golden Globe Awards | Golden Globe

In times like these, when the world teeters on the brink of too many terrifying disasters at once, awards seasons can be a bit of a tightrope.

This weekend’s Golden Globe Awards were a perfect example of that. The main criticism of the ceremony so far seems to be that it did not adequately reflect the moment. It was all like Berlin in the 1920s, with a glittering group of beautiful millionaires busy congratulating themselves, oblivious to the fear and exhaustion in the rest of the world.

It’s no wonder, then, that the only real moment that went viral on the show was a red carpet interview with Mark Ruffalo. When an interviewer called him to explain the pin he was wearing on his tuxedo, Ruffalo explained, “I’m not feeling very good. We have a woman, Renee Judd, murdered on our American streets today… As much as I love all of this, I don’t know if I can pretend that this crazy stuff doesn’t happen.” [The killing is under investigation and the officer is not suspected of wrongdoing.]

Ruffalo wasn’t the only attendee to wear a “Be Well” badge to the ceremony — Jean Smart, Ariana Grande, Wanda Sykes, and Natasha Lyonne did the same — but he seems to be one of the few figures who consistently voices his opinion on such matters. The “Political Activism and Views” section of his Wikipedia page contains 14 dense paragraphs of causes he has supported, on issues ranging from Iran to pollution to the preservation of Manhattan churches. And just this week, after the Globes, he signed a letter calling for the immediate restoration of medical care in Gaza.

Ruffalo’s candor puts him in the crosshairs – just today, one newspaper called him “the most dignified man in Hollywood” – which could be a dangerous game in an era where the entertainment industry is run by an increasing number of personalities. But the beauty of Mark Ruffalo is that he was always dancing to the beat of his own drum.

In terms of his professional production, he has always managed to balance his personal projects with blockbuster projects. In just one year he managed to produce Dark Waters (a film about a lawyer trying to make it big in a multinational chemical company) and Avengers: Endgame (a film in which he played a version of the Incredible Hulk who can touch). Commercially, one of these films was the second-biggest film of all time, and the other was the 130th film of 2019, but Ruffalo handled both with equal force.

In other words, it’s proof that speaking out about issues that resonate personally won’t necessarily hurt your career, as long as you mean it. Which brings us back to the tightrope. Political statements have a history of going bad at awards ceremonies — Michael Moore was booed at the Oscars in 2003, and Jonathan Glazer sparked a firestorm when he spoke about Palestine during his acceptance speech in 2024 — but Mark Ruffalo manages to hit the spot. Her red carpet moment arrived this weekend because she managed to be awkward, honest, and unresolved all at the same time. It wasn’t so much an out-of-touch sermon as it was a howl of frustration, and who couldn’t relate to that?