Like many other actors who were tagged “best of a generation,” Mark Ruffalo’s roots were in theater and independent film where his honest, open character approach was applauded. His breakout stage role in Kenneth Lonergan’s acclaimed “This is Our Youth” led Lonergan to give Ruffalo the lead in his film directorial debut “You Can Count on Me” (2000), which earned countless festival awards and had critics buzzing about the little-known actor’s subtle, compelling performance as a cerebral but aimless young adult with an arrest record and a pregnant teenage girlfriend. Hollywood came courting, but
