Mark Ruffalo, who scored his sixth Golden Globes nod for Poor Things, has long been using his relevance in the entertainment industry to spread awareness to ensure a better future for the next generation. Ruffalo, who was one of the Hollywood bigshots that shared their support for the March to End Fossil Fuel, has been vocal against the use of Fossil Fuels following its detriment to the environment.
Reflecting on the progress they’ve made over the years, the Hulk star took to his social media handle to credit the Indigenous people as the most committed community to the cause,
Mark Ruffalo Lauds the First Nation People Following Their Commitment to the Cause
Mark Ruffalo has been an ally to the Indigenous community for years, as he even stood aside the Wet’suwet’en people, demanding the Royal Bank of Canada to withdraw its involvement with Coastal GasLink. And considering their livelihoods have been impacted the most following the rise in carbon emissions, they’ve long been fighting to push the government to limit greenhouse emissions. While it hasn’t been an easy route, things are better than it was before, and Ruffalo has commended their efforts to combat climate change’s impacts, as he urges people to partake in the cause.
Right now the people most committed to stopping the extraction and expansion of fossil fuels are the indigenous people of the world, like our First Nations family in “Canada”. It is an imperative that we support their struggle and work on behalf of all, but most importantly our… https://t.co/nzJFoLuUHL
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) January 13, 2024
But it isn’t the only time the actor has raised his voice against the unfair treatment of First Nation people, as he further poured light on Hollywood’s ugly history of boiling down Natives to stereotypes.
Mark Ruffalo Touched On Hollywood’s Ugly Past of Narrowing Down Native’s Onscreen
From the rise of Westerns to the advent of The New Hollywood, for a long time, Natives were narrowed down to regressive stereotypes, being portrayed as bloodthirsty barbarians or noble savages. And while things did ameliorate as filmmakers started going against the tide, the damage was already done, and the past can’t be forgotten. Mark Ruffalo, who served as the executive producer on the documentary Lakota Nation vs. the United States, which traces the dark history of the Lakota people, touched on Hollywood’s past injustice to the Natives, stating (Rolling Stone),
“Hollywood, in the past, has done much harm to the Native people by too often portraying them using ugly caricatures, missing their dignity, their traditions, their incredible resilience, and their deep reverence for the land and water, the living creatures and the family of humankind,” Ruffalo said. “We are in the Native American Century, the 7th generation, and it couldn’t be more timely and important that we bring this dark secret of the U.S.A. to justice.”
Apart from Ruffalo, the great Martin Scorsese too touched on Hollywood’s stereotypical representation of Natives, especially Westerns. The director further expressed that he felt complicit in the pain and misrepresentation of Native Americans following his love for the genre, and with Killers of the Flower Moon, he finally felt a sense of atonement.
Lakota Nation vs. the United States is available to stream on Apple TV.
