John Cusack is standing in solidarity with Mark Ruffalo after the actor addressed claims he’s antisemitic.
“Solidarity — well said,” Cusack, 60, wrote via X on Saturday, August 22, quote-tweeting Ruffalo’s recent statement after coming out in fierce opposition to Paramount Skydance’s executives’ ties to the Israeli government.
“The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest,” Ruffalo, 58, wrote via the same social media platform earlier on Saturday. “Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel.”
He continued at the time, “To be clear, my views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect. Everything I know about acting, activism, and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.”
Ruffalo has been a vocal opponent of both the war in Gaza and Paramount Skydance’s proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros since the deal was announced in February. Paramount Skydance chairman David Ellison is the son of Oracle cofounder and prominent President Donald Trump ally Larry Ellison. (David, 43, and Larry, 82, became co-owners of Paramount Skydance following a 2025 merger.)
After the Avengers actor publicly denounced Safra Catz, Oracle’s executive vice chair and Paramount board member, for discussing “profoundly scary technologies” Oracle gave the Israeli government to be used in strikes on Gaza after the October 7, 2023, terror attacks, Paramount issued a public statement condemning Ruffalo’s comments as “antisemitic.” (Over 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched military operations in the region, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, including more than 20,000 children.)
“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” a Paramount spokesperson said in a Friday, August 21, statement. “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. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”
The spokesperson 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. We’re asking for the same good faith we’re extending: less rhetoric, more understanding. Paramount’s future is being written for everyone who wants to make and watch great stories.”
In response, Ruffalo drew attention to what he claimed would be the “real consequences” suffered by real people across the country if the merger is allowed to move forward.
“This merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country. Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary,” he alleged in the same Saturday statement. “The $111 billion deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public.”
He continued, “Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for serious national security review, and regulators still haven’t given the public a real answer. Until they do, the merger shouldn’t move forward. Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues, not step back or concede.”
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