Movies

Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo reenact 13 Going on 30 scene at his Walk of Fame ceremony

Still thrillin' after all these years.

Published on February 8, 2024 06:51PM EST

Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner are still busting out their "Thriller" dance moves after all these years.

The Alias actress honored her 13 Going on 30 costar at his Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony Thursday — and as she walked to the podium to begin her speech, Garner joined Ruffalo in a brief re-creation of their 2004 rom-com's iconic dance sequence. The duo also reprised the dance once Ruffalo's star was unveiled.

After Timothy McNeil celebrated Ruffalo as a friend and David Fincher praised his skills as an actor, Garner took it upon herself to acknowledge a different side of Ruffalo's persona: "I have got to be here to honor and elucidate rom-com Ruffalo," she said.

Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner.
Frazer Harrison/Getty

Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo in '13 Going on 30'.
Mary Evans/REVOLUTION STUDIOS/Ronald Grant/Everett

"How lucky are we to have been in a movie that kids are dressing up for as Halloween? It still means something to people," Garner, 51, said of Ruffalo, 56, and 13 Going on 30. She went on to name-drop Ruffalo's other female co-leads from romantic films like Just Like Heaven, Rumor Has It, Thanks for Sharing, and Begin Again: "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."

Garner also poked fun at Ruffalo's nervousness about the memorable 13 Going on 30 dance. "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 went on to praise Ruffalo's vulnerability. "To work with you, Mark, is to love you," she gushed. "You allow yourself to be fully known — by your colleagues, by the audience, by the world. Your work on Poor Things deserves all of the awards. All of them. But 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, 'Okay, the good and right thing has happened.'"

The actress ended her remarks with another playful jab about the dance sequence. "Congratulations… to the entire world who calls you theirs — and there I include myself, even if sometimes I make you dance," she said. "Congratulations, Mark, we love you."