Do we like Mark Ruffalo?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A long record backing LGBTQ+ people and environmental causes, held back by a contested antisemitism accusation he denies and an unresolved fire lawsuit.
Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, one of four kids. His dad was a construction painter and his mum a hairdresser. The family moved to Virginia Beach, then San Diego, and he ended up in Los Angeles co-founding a theatre company. Film work came with You Can Count on Me in 2000, and the Hulk in The Avengers made him a household name. He has four Oscar nominations and won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for I Know This Much Is True.
On the LGBTQ+ side the record is good. In 2014 he endorsed Brazilian presidential candidate Marina Silva, then pulled the endorsement after learning of her stance on same-sex marriage, writing that he could not support a candidate taking a hard-right line on it. In 2016, when trans viewers were angry about Matt Bomer's casting in Anything, which he executive produced, he told them “I hear you” and asked for compassion while everyone learns. Some will say the casting itself was the problem, but he didn't get defensive.
He's put real time into the planet too. He got involved in the anti-fracking fight after visiting Dimock, Pennsylvania, where he saw damaged water wells, and he lobbied Congress on it in 2011. He lives in the Catskills, right in the path of the drilling, so he had skin in the game. Of the decision to speak out, he said he felt it was “the right thing to stand up and say” no.
Politically he is loud, and his Trump criticism is the thing most likely to start a fight at your dinner table. At the January 2026 Golden Globes he called Trump “the worst human being in the world” and dedicated his remarks to a woman shot in Minneapolis by an ICE agent. Newsmax host Carl Higbie replied that he'd deleted the Avengers films from his Apple TV, and commenters pointed out the movies were already paid for. That's culture-war theatre, not harm.
The real asterisk is August 2026. Paramount said it was “troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked” in a business dispute, after Ruffalo campaigned against its Warner Bros. Discovery bid. The ADL's Jonathan Greenblatt called his posts “cynical and sickening”. Ruffalo called the accusation “appalling and fundamentally dishonest” and said criticising Israel's prime minister is not the same as criticising Jewish people. Where you land depends on whether you read his posts as corporate and political criticism or as playing on tropes about wealth and media ownership.
One more mark: in 2022 Ellenville residents sued HBO and Ruffalo, alleging a 2019 fire at a filming location left toxic debris and damage to their homes. HBO declined to comment at the time, and I couldn't find a confirmed outcome in the reporting I read. Overall it's a mate who has been on the right side of most of the things we care about, with one accusation worth watching.