Actor: Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo has been nominated four times and works in a naturalistic, slightly hesitant register that is unusual in a franchise actor. He took over the Hulk after two previous performers and made Banner conversational instead of tormented.

You Can Count on Me, Spotlight and Foxcatcher are the serious work, and Spotlight’s ensemble structure suits him better than a lead role does.

He had a benign brain tumour removed in 2001 which left him with temporary facial paralysis, and he has discussed how it affected the following years of casting.

Zodiac and Dark Waters are the ones to seek out, both playing men grinding at a problem for years without resolution.