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Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner re-create '13 Going on 30' 'Thriller' dance at Walk of Fame ceremony

The longtime pals co-starred together as Jenna and Matty in the 2004 rom-com.
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/ Source: TODAY

Jennifer Garner reunited with her "13 Going on 30" co-star Mark Ruffalo when she gave a heartfelt speech honoring the actor at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Feb. 8.

Garner and Ruffalo have remained pals since filming “13 Going on 30,” which told the story of Jenna, a gawky 13-year-old girl who wakes up in the body of an adult woman who works for a New York fashion magazine. Ruffalo played Matty, the grown-up version of Jenna’s best platonic friend.

Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony.
Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner posed as Ruffalo received the 2,772nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Gregg DeGuire / Getty Images

Garner joked in her speech that she "kicked off the Mark Ruffalo rom-com era," noting a few of the actor's attributes that she said defined "Rom-com Ruffalo."

"The scruffy hair, the untucked cute button-down, both of which became the norm for cute guys everywhere for the next 20 years," said Garner.

Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony.
The "13 Going on 30" co-stars re-created the "Thriller" dance from the 2004 rom-com.Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Garner mentioned a few of the Marvel star's other co-stars over the years, including Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Keira Knightley.

"I wonder if these esteemed ladies enjoyed Mark’s anxiety as much as I did?” Garner joked of working with Ruffalo. “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.'"

As Garner approached the podium, she and Ruffalo shared a few moves from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video choreography in honor of a dance scene in "13 Going on 30."

Later in her speech, Garner compared Ruffalo’s performances to those of Old Hollywood stars Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart and Frank Sinatra.

“Mark added depth to what was light. He was smooth, mercurial. You never see the work,” she explained.

She also noted that Ruffalo shows up to each new set “with joy."

“To work with you, Mark, is to love you, I don’t care what anyone says,” joked Garner, who appeared opposite Ruffalo again in Netflix’s 2022 sci-fi movie “The Adam Project.”

“You allow yourself to be fully known by your colleagues, by the audience, by the world,” said Garner, adding, “The real success is in how thrilled and delighted your colleagues are to have the opportunity to lift you up and celebrate you. Every time your name is called, Hollywood takes a deep collective breath and says, ‘OK, the good and right thing has happened.’”

Garner's speech comes nearly two years after she and Ruffalo delighted "13 Going on 30" fans by re-creating one of Jenna and Matty's most romantic scenes.

Garner posted a photo of her and Ruffalo snuggling together on a sofa in the movie alongside a pic of the pair in a similar pose at the time.