Mark Ruffalo Skips Toronto Premiere As Disability Rights Story Steals The Show

Mark Ruffalo was nowhere to be found on opening night at the Toronto International Film Festival, where his new film“Being Heumann”kicked things off. His team says he’s filming the series“Task”in Philadelphia. The quieter reason may be that a red carpet would have invited questions about his social media posts linking Paramount’s Jewish leadership to Israel’s military technology and accusing them of complicity in genocide. Paramount, the ADL, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center all condemned those posts.

With Ruffalo absent, the night belonged to the film and the people in it.“Being Heumann”tells the story of Judy Heumann, a titan of the disability rights movement. Director Sian Heder told the audience the film is about what happens when people refuse to be invisible. Star Ruth Madeley said she believes this is the start of a major shift in the industry. Dylan O’Brien walked the carpet as well and kept his comments centered on the disabled community.

Reviews of Ruffalo’s work were split, with Variety praising his performance and The Hollywood Reporter taking a harder line. What do you think? Should film festivals be a platform for political statements, or should the work speak for itself? Tell us in the comments.