Jennifer Garner gave Mark Ruffalo his Hollywood Walk of Fame star, and the nostalgia is real
In news that might make your bones crumble into dust, 13 Going on 30 is turning 20 years old. (Sorry but how?!) So instead of panicking about the passage of time, enjoy a mini reunion of the beloved rom com, because Jennifer Garner just joined Mark Ruffalo to celebrate him receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And yes, they did the “Thriller” dance, not once, but twice.
Ruffalo snagged his star on Feb. 8, and he was joined by plenty of famous pals and colleagues, as well as his wife, Sunrise Coigney, and their three children, Keen, 22, Bella, 18, and Odette, 16. But it was Garner who invited the most cheers and swoons, as the duo recreated their famous dance scene from the film, with Garner giving the sweetest speech about her longtime pal and co-star. (She even called Ruffalo’s kids “the Ruffalitos,” LOL.)
Paying homage to Ruffalo’s rightly-earned status as a rom-com king, she even name-dropped his other famous romantic leads in her speech, noting that it was 13 Going on 30 that kicked off his domination in the genre. “How lucky are we to have been in a movie that kids are dressing up for as Halloween? It still means something to people,” the actress said of the film.
She then mentioned some of their shared co-stars, adding, “I wonder if my colleagues Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth [Paltrow], Keira Knightley—I wonder if they would agree that Mark owes this rom-com success to the scruffy hair, the untucked cute button-down, both of which became the norm for cute guys everywhere for the next 20 years.”
“I wonder if these esteemed ladies enjoyed Mark’s anxiety as much as I did,” she said. “I wonder if he tried to drop out of their films like he did out of ours after the first rehearsal of the ‘Thriller’ dance, where Mark went from kind of shocked that we actually had to do this, to antsy, to a deathly quiet, to ‘Bro, this is not for me.'”
Garner gushed about Ruffalo as a parent, adding, “I wonder if my lady friends would agree with me that knowing Mark the young dad was a privilege. The pull between providing for and being present for his young family added an intensity to everything Mark did. The pull between providing for his family and doing more serious work was ever present, too. It seems like you figured that out, Mark. Both of them, good for you,” she said.
Ruffalo returned the praise in an Instagram post, sharing a video of them doing the dance on his star. “Jennifer, it’s been twenty years of everything,” he captioned the post. “To have you there today giving me a star was so perfect and so beautiful and moving to me. Thank you old friend. So grateful for your panache, class, and humor. You are one of the greatest people. Thank you.
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We’re not crying, you’re crying. Razzles for all!
