You’ll have to wait more than an hour for Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo to appear on screen together in The Adam Project, but that’s nothing compared to the last time they co-starred in a film — 18 years ago, back in 2004. Like, before Walker Scobell, who plays their son, Adam, was born. The 13 Going on 30 co-stars might have taken a while before working together again, but as Garner tells Tudum, “[You waited] 18 years. What’s another 70 minutes?”
In fact, in real life, the actors hadn’t seen each other in quite some time, too. They’d chat in passing at an awards show, but that interaction was even briefer than their shared Adam Project moment. They really didn’t have an opportunity to properly catch up until they were filming the sci-fi adventure. “Every time they were like, OK, camera’s going to need 10 minutes, we were... just diving straight into a conversation,” says Garner.
In 13 Going on 30, Garner and Ruffalo play the adult versions of childhood BFFs Jenna and Matty, who discover that they are destined to wind up together after 13-year-old Jenna magically wakes up in her 30-year-old self’s body. In The Adam Project, they’re a happily married couple — much like the duo imagine those characters would be today — and parents of time-traveling Adam. (Future Adam is played by Ryan Reynolds and the 2022 version by Scobell.)
Ruffalo says he revisited 13 Going on 30 a few years ago with his youngest daughter. “She really liked it, my little one. She’s not little anymore, but it’s such a sweet movie.” Garner did so more publicly when she performed the “Thriller” dance while receiving the 2022 Woman of the Year award from Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding comedy troupe in February.
The most enduring moments in the film include the aforementioned “Thriller” dance sequence — a party trick trotted out by Jenna when her magazine party needs a little injection of energy — and, of course, the most loving portrayal of Razzles ever committed to screen. (What are Razzles, you ask? Why, they’re both a candy and a gum, Garner and Ruffalo are quick to point out. In this exclusive reunion video, they even reenact their characters’ loving toast to the vintage treat.)
One of the reasons 13 Going on 30 has remained in the zeitgeist is because it’s a very specific kind of movie — one that families can watch together. It shares that trait with The Adam Project, which can be enjoyed with loved ones of any age, say the stars.
“There’s so few of them around,” Ruffalo says. “[The Adam Project] touches what it is to be a parent, as well as what it is to be a child, what the past is and how it’s perceived and how it actually is. And they get to go and work it out and finish the relationships in a way that’s satisfying and that rarely ever happens.”
While there are some fast-moving action sequences, “it’s never terrifying,” says Garner. “I would show it to my most sensitive child. It’s really vivid, and the love story is so romantic and so heart-expanding.”
Garner and Ruffalo don’t currently have any new joint projects in the works, but they have plenty of ideas — particularly since they seem to only work on time-travel movies together. 15 Going on 80, perhaps?
“We have a couple ideas,” Ruffalo says. “They want to cash in on 13 Going on 30?”
Quips Garner, “Give us more than one scene and see what happens.”
