Mark Ruffalo’s new film “Dark Waters” is tackling a serious environmental crisis, and the “Avengers” star is teaming up with the production company behind the film, Participant, to launch the “Fight Forever Chemicals” campaign.
According to a Dec. 18 announcement, Ruffalo will be joined in his efforts by a number of high-profile ambassadors: actress Piper Perabo; consumer advocate Erin Brockovich; author Nathaniel Rich; retired San Francisco firefighter captain Tony Stefani; Professor of Experimental Nuclear Physics at the University of Notre Dame Graham Peaslee; and Water Canary CEO Sonaar Luthra.
In “Dark Waters”, Ruffalo stars in the true story of environmental attorney and author Rob Bilott, who placed his career and family at risk when he exposed a huge corporation’s dirty secret in order to seek justice for a community that had unknowingly been exposed to deadly chemicals for decades.
“Right now our laws and public institutions are failing to protect us,” said Ruffalo in a statement. “I wanted to make ‘Dark Waters’ to tell an important story about bringing justice to a community dangerously exposed for decades to deadly chemicals by one of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations. By telling these stories we can raise awareness around forever chemicals and work together to demand stronger environmental protections.”
Ruffalo and Bilott travelled to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to launch the campaign, which is intended to “bring the fight against forever chemicals from the margins to the mainstream” in order to demand stronger legislative protection. Forever chemicals, notes the announcement, are “a family of chemicals that do not degrade in the environment and accumulate in humans and animals over time,” and have been connected to such serious health problems as infertility and cancer.
“It is imperative that we use what we’ve learned about forever chemicals over the last 20 years and seize the urgency in identifying lasting solutions to this crisis,” added Bilott, author of the new book Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont. “I am looking forward to the film and the book helping accelerate that change.”
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“‘Dark Waters’ personalizes an issue that impacts us all,” said David Linde, CEO of Participant. “We’re proud to share with audiences this important, beautiful film that has a unique opportunity to raise awareness about a pressing public health issue that impacts most Americans. With this campaign, we aim to ignite and energize audiences in the fight against forever chemicals.”
“Dark Waters” premiered on Friday, Nov. 22.
