Dancing is not one of Mark Ruffalo's strong suits!
Jennifer Garner revealed details about filming the iconic “Thriller” scene from 13 Going on 30 during her speech in honor of the Poor Things actor receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, Calif., on Thursday, February 8.
The 51-year-old, who was previously married to Ben Affleck, recalled how the world was almost robbed of the memorable pop culture moment.
She began by raving about how Ruffalo owed his "rom-com success to the scruffy hair, the untucked cute button down, both of which became like 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,” Garner joked, referencing his past costars Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow and Keira Knightley. “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 deathly quiet, to 'Bro, this is not for me.’"
"We started to learn the dance. Our first rehearsal, I think it was Mark and Judy [Greer] and me, and Judy and I were both dancers growing up and poor Mark didn't know that. And he came in and he hated the rehearsal process so much he almost dropped out," she spilled in her speech, which she had to create on the fly, as Garner was a last-minute fill-in speaker to replace Laura Dern and Don Cheadle.
"To work with you, Mark, is to love you, I don't care what anyone says," Garner concluded, adding that it was “a privilege” to know the 56-year-old.
In the ’00s film, Garner plays the adult version of Jenna Rink, a teen who woke up to find herself working as a 30-year-old magazine editor. In the famous scene, Jenna finds herself at a party that no one seems to be enjoying until she asks the DJ to put on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
The actress’ character then convinces Ruffalo’s character, Matt "Matty" Flamhaff, to recreate the choreography featured in Jackson's 1983 music video.
The duo even recreated the silly moment from the film during the Thursday ceremony.
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This was not the first time Garner opened up about Ruffalo almost calling it quits with the dance scene, as in March 2021, Garner told theSkimm thes same story.
The father-of-three then responded to People’s coverage of the conversation on Instagram, saying, "It didn't help that it took me 3 hours to learn what Jen mastered in about 20 minutes!"
People reported on Garner's speech.
