Mark Ruffalo is set to play a key role in Oscar-winning CODA filmmaker Sian Heder’s forthcoming feature Being Heumann.
Ruffalo has joined the cast of the Apple Original Films project that adapts disability rights activist Judy Heumann’s best-selling memoir of the same name. Ruffalo will play Joseph Califano opposite Ruth Madeley in the titular role as Judy Heumann.
Being Heumann focuses on Heumann (Madeley), who leads over a hundred disabled people in a 28-day sit-in at the San Francisco Federal Building in 1977. The protestors vow to stay put until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, requiring accessibility for all federal spaces.
Heder helms the Apple Studios feature and serves as producer through her overall deal with the company. Heder and Rebekah Taussig co-wrote the script that is based on Heumann’s memoir that was published in 2020. Producer include David Permut for Permut Presenations and Kevin Walsh for The Walsh Company, alongside Heumann’s managers John W. Beach and Kevin Cleary of Gravity Squared Entertainment.
Heumann, who died in 2023 at age 75, will receive an executive producer credit alongside Being Heumann co-author Kristen Joiner, Diana Pokorny and Jim Lebrecht.
Heder’s previous collaboration with Apple includes directing the film 2021 CODA, which won Oscars for best picture, best supporting actor for Troy Kotsur and best adapted screenplay for Heder’s script. Heder also executive produced the series Little America.
Ruffalo is a four-time Oscar-nominated actor who recently appeared in Poor Things and Mickey 17. He can be seen in next year’s feature Crime 101, opposite Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry. Ruffalo is represented by Lighthouse Management and Media, UTA and Keith Klevan.