Paramount Responds to Mark Ruffalo’s Genocide Allegation

Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo has accused Paramount of being complicit “in what we now have come to see as a genocide,” prompting a sharply worded response from David Ellison’s media company. The 58-year-old award-winning actor criticized Paramount in an Instagram Stories post on Friday, claiming that billionaires David Ellison, 43, and his father, Larry Ellison, 82, were “powering some of the most destructive and inhuman forces in the world.” Ruffalo also reposted a years-old video featuring Safra Catz, the Israeli-American business executive and former Oracle CEO who now serves as the company’s executive vice chair of the board. “This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition,” Ruffalo wrote to his 20.5 million followers.

Paramount responded forcefully, saying it was “as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” according to CNN’s Brian Stelter. “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,” a company spokesperson said. The statement added: “This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.” The media conglomerate called for “a moment to lower the temperature, not raise it,” saying it would “rather build than further engage in such rhetoric.”

Paramount said Ruffalo’s comments “simply expose the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction,” referring to its proposed $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. The company reaffirmed its commitment “to every story, every storyteller, and no blacklists, no exceptions, for anyone.” “We understand people feel strongly about this merger and are hopeful and expect that it will be judged based on the legal merits, not underlying bias,” Paramount said. The statement concluded with an appeal for “less rhetoric, more understanding.” In his Instagram post, Ruffalo asked: “Why has Trump pushed this illegal merger through?”

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Ruffalo also described Larry Ellison as a “classic oligarch” and said he would own much of what the actor derisively called “Para Bros.” “They are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance,” Ruffalo wrote. He pointed to a lawsuit filed by 12 attorneys general seeking to block the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. “It will be catastrophic for our film industry,” Ruffalo said, adding that mergers like this are “almost always bad for workers, consumers, and the industry they tend to dominate.” California is leading the legal effort to stop the deal, as the state’s film industry continues to face significant challenges. A report published by Los Angeles County on Tuesday estimated that the merger could cost the county approximately 4,500 film and television jobs.

The video Ruffalo shared of Catz was recorded at the Israeli-American Council National Summit in 2024, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In his Instagram story, Ruffalo wrote: “Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.” In the clip, Catz discussed advancing “the agenda for the Israeli military” and referred to “really profoundly scary technology at Oracle.” “We wanted to make sure that it was available for the effort,” she said, referring to the period following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Ruffalo and Paramount for additional comment.