Mark Ruffalo Accuses Ellisons of “Genocide,” Paramount Calls Remarks “Antisemitic”

Something tells me Mark Ruffalo won’t be starring in a Paramount movie again anytime soon.

Ruffalo is now accusing the Ellison family of complicity in “genocide,” escalating his already fierce opposition to the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger.

On Friday morning, Ruffalo shared an Instagram video of Safra Catz, executive vice chair of Larry Ellison’s Oracle, discussing the company’s “profoundly scary technologies” and their use by the Israeli military in Gaza.

“This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros. acquisition,” Ruffalo wrote. “These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you.” He went on to accuse Catz of “revel[ing] in what we now have come to see as a genocide,” which he said was “built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.

A Paramount spokesperson responded to Ruffalo’s remarks in an exclusive statement to TheWrap, accusing the actor of crossing a line with what the company characterized as “antisemitic” rhetoric.

We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,. Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe […] Paramount doesn’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.

The studio also called for a “moment to lower the temperature, not raise it,” arguing that the rhetoric surrounding the merger has gone too far. Paramount emphasized its commitment to inclusivity and creative freedom and urged critics to approach the transaction in good faith and have it judged on its legal merits rather than underlying bias.

Ruffalo, meanwhile, has arguably been the most vocal and relentless actor in Hollywood in opposing the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger. His campaign has gone well beyond signing a petition. In February, he publicly challenged filmmaker James Cameron’s support for Paramount’s bid, asking whether Cameron was “also against the monopolization that a Paramount acquisition would create” while saying he was speaking on behalf of filmmakers worldwide. After Paramount shareholders approved the transaction, Ruffalo again attacked the deal, warning that it would create an unprecedented concentration of news and entertainment power in the hands of David and Larry Ellison. He later co-wrote a New York Times opinion piece urging artists not to be intimidated into silence. By May, Ruffalo was saying he assumed he was “already on a list” because of his opposition.

Now, with his latest comments, Ruffalo appears to be taking his opposition further than ever. Don’t worry about his inevitable blacklisting, though—the guy has already cashed in handsomely playing the Hulk in the MCU, which, come to think of it, was itself the product of a mega-studio merger.