Mark Ruffalo, Cillian Murphy, and More All Have One Favorite Decade for Movies
Movies have been around for more than a century, and throughout that time, the film industry has been through countless ups and downs from the so-called golden age of Hollywood in the mid-20th century to now. But what period do today's actors revere the most?
The Los Angeles Times held a roundtable with a handful of accomplished male actors in the industry, including most of this year's Oscar nominees for Best Actor. Cillian Murphy, Colman Domingo, Jeffrey Wright, and Paul Giamatti, along with Mark Ruffalo and Andrew Scott were all asked what they believe to be the best decade for movies in film history, and most of them agreed on one particular time frame.
"It's a toss-up between the '50s and the '70s for me," Ruffalo said. Wright similarly included part of the 1970s in his answer, saying the span between 1965 and 1975 is probably his "favorite decade of movies, no question."
Giamatti also placed his heart in those years, saying the best era was "probably those '70s movies." He explained that the '70s had great films regardless of subject matter, adding that he has a soft spot for horror movies from that time. "[My favorite] probably is that era of movies, which is maybe why [The Holdovers director] Alexander [Payne] and I sort of get along in some ways."
Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy echoed a similar sentiment. "It's gotta be the 1970s," he said. "Those are the movies for me that I kind of watched before I ever wanted to be an actor and they transformed me."
Colman Domingo, who's up for an Oscar for his role as civil rights icon Bayard Rustin, was quick with his answer. "Oh, I have a very favorite decade of movies, which is the 1970s," he said. "I always go to movies like Network and Five Easy Pieces and The Day of the Locust."
The sole outlier among the group was All of Us Strangers star Andrew Scott, who claimed the 1990s as his favorite movie decade. "I remember all those Merchant Ivory films with Tony Hopkins and Emma Thompson and all those films where the performances were just so extraordinary," he said.
Was the '70s the actual golden age of Hollywood? According to these actors, it looks that way.