Watch the 1989 Clearasil commercial that helped launched Mark Ruffalo’s acting career.
Before Mark Ruffalo was the Hulk, Ruffalo was an aspiring actor who auditioned over 600 times before ever landed a major role. In fact, Ruffalo was just another young actor working on small acting gigs.
During the Tonight Show last week, Jimmy Fallon aired a classic 1989 Clearasil commercial featuring a 22-year-old Ruffalo discussing the problems with acne and using medicated face wipes.
“After I was hired,” Ruffalo recalled, “The director was like, ‘I really liked what you did because you just seem like you came right off the street—like, you don’t know how to act at all.’” I guess that’s no longer a problem for Ruffalo. In fact, Mark Ruffalo called out Jason Statham after Statham bashed the Marvel series for bad acting. Ruffalo responded by saying, “You’ve got nothing on me.” And by the looks of this commercial, Ruffalo is probably right.
Ruffalo’s acting career is on fire nearly 30 years later. Following his major breakout performance in You Can Count on Me sixteen years ago, he went on to star in critically acclaimed films such as Collateral in 2004, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the underrated movie Zodiac in 2007and Shutter Island alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. For his roles in The Kids Are All Right (2010) and Foxcatcher (2014), he received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor.
Mark Ruffalo is now working on the sequel to Now You See Me.
