Mark Ruffalo / Jeffrey Wright : Fresh Air

Mark Ruffalo is nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in Poor Things. He plays a hilarious debauched lawyer who seduces Emma Stone’s character. Ruffalo has also appeared in Marvel movies as the Incredible Hulk. For that role he had to act in a motion capture suit. “It’s the man-canceling suit. It makes you look big where you want to look small, and small where want to look big,” he says.

Also, we hear from Jeffrey Wright. He’s up for an Oscar for best actor for his role in American Fiction, where he plays a novelist who’s frustrated with the publishing industry’s expectations of Black authors. He cynically writes a book under a pseudonym that’s full of clichés, like violence and poverty — and it’s a hit.

Maureen Corrigan reviews an off-beat bestselling Japanese mystery series.