Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner sweetly honor '13 Going on 30' during Walk of Fame ceremony

As Mark Ruffalo received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he and Jennifer Garner had a sweet way of honoring "13 Going on 30" as the rom-com's 20th anniversary approaches.

The "Poor Things" star, 56, on Thursday was honored with the 2,772nd Walk of Fame star near the Stella Adler Academy of Acting & Theatre, where he studied for seven years after arriving in Hollywood as an 18-year-old aspiring actor.

During the ceremony, Garner, actor Tim McNeil and director David Fincher all sang Ruffalo's praises. Meanwhile, the "Hulk" actor humbly described himself as "a kid from Wisconsin who came from a blue-collar family who were immigrants from Italy who really struggled to make a beautiful life for themselves but who were not artists, really."

"And somehow I ended up here," he said.

Jennifer Garner reveals Mark Ruffalo 'tried' quit '13 Going on 30' over 'Thriller' dance

At the Hollywood Boulevard ceremony, Garner was a pinch hitter for the "beautiful, COVID-struck Laura Dern," who had been slated to give a speech. Instead, Garner wrote a speech on the way over to the event after finding out she would be subbing in the previous evening.

As one of the final speeches, Garner was there to "elucidate rom-com Ruffalo!" she said. In "13 Going on 30," Garner played Jenna, a teen who wakes up to find herself as an adult version of herself, and Ruffalo plays her best friend and partner in crime (and eventual love interest), Matty.

"I know this is the question you were all wondering, so I'm just going to cover the elephant in the room: Why wasn't I asked to do this in the first place?" Garner said. "I kicked off the Mark Ruffalo rom-com era!"

Garner went on to put her former co-star in the hot seat.

She invoked her peers, including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow, and said: "I wonder if these esteemed ladies enjoyed Mark's anxiety as much as I did. I wonder if he tried to drop out of their films like he did out of ours after the first rehearsal of the 'Thriller' dance, where Mark went from kind of shocked that we actually had to do this to antsy to a deathly quiet to a 'Bro, this is not for me.'"

Next to Garner, Ruffalo laughed and covered his face.

Jokes aside, Garner praised her friend's skill and good nature.

"Your work on 'Poor Things' deserves all of the awards. All of them. But the real success is in how thrilled and delighted your colleagues are to have the opportunity to life you up and celebrate you," Garner said.

Even after Garner called him out for his trepidation over doing the choreographed sequence, Ruffalo showed he was game as the two whipped out Michael Jackson's iconic move from the music video as they posed for photos.

Mark Ruffalo says he almost quit acting 'five, six, different times'

When it was his turn to address the crowd, Ruffalo acknowledged all of the recognition he'd been showered with all afternoon.

"Man, I don't know who these people are talking about," Ruffalo joked. "I've been standing here in tears the whole time."

He paid tribute to his star's location, where – nearly 40 years prior – he had first arrived on a bus to hone his acting craft.

"There's nothing that's difficult in life that isn't in some way worth it, whether you make it or not. And that nothing worth a good ... damn in life is easy. So hang on," he said. "Because there's no reason I should've been here. And I tried to quit five, six, different times. ... My friends who said don't quit, my mom said don't quit, my brother said don't quit, my wife said don't quit."

He added, "There's no reason I should be here, but I'm here."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner reunite as '13 Going on 30' turns 20