Paramount Hits Back Hard at Mark Ruffalo’s Genocide Claim

Mark Ruffalo has drawn a sharp rebuke from Paramount after accusing the company of complicity “in what we now have come to see as a genocide” while criticizing its proposed Warner Bros. deal. The 58-year-old award-winning actor posted the remarks to Instagram Stories on Friday, taking aim at David Ellison, 43, and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, 82, whom he accused of “powering some of the most destructive and inhuman forces in the world.” Ruffalo shared an older video of Israeli-American business executive Safra Catz, Oracle’s former CEO and current executive vice chair, writing to his 20.5 million followers: “This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition.”

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

The studio also said Ruffalo’s comments “simply exposes the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction,” referring to Paramount’s proposed $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Paramount said it remained committed “to every story, every storyteller, and no blacklists, no exceptions, for anyone.” The statement continued: “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 closed by calling for “less rhetoric, more understanding.” In his Instagram Story, Ruffalo had also asked: “Why has Trump pushed this illegal merger through?”

Ruffalo further described Larry Ellison as a “classic oligarch” and claimed he would control much of what the actor derisively referred to as “Para Bros.” He wrote: “They are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance.” Ruffalo also pointed to a lawsuit by 12 attorneys general seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. “It will be catastrophic for our film industry,” he wrote. “Merger [sic] like this are almost always bad for workers, consumers, and the industry they tend to dominate.” The legal push is being led by California, where the entertainment sector has faced mounting challenges. A report released Tuesday by Los Angeles County said the merger could cost the county about 4,500 film and television jobs.

The video Ruffalo shared of Catz was from the Israeli-American Council National Summit in 2024, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In his post, 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.” Speaking about the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, she said: “We wanted to make sure that it was available for the effort.” The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Ruffalo and Paramount for additional comment.