Marisa Tomei has publicly thrown her weight behind activist and fellow Avengers actor Mark Ruffalo amid his antisemitism controversy.
It comes after he shared comments pushing back on Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, due to the company’s links to Larry Ellison, whose company was reportedly in bed with the Israeli military.
Earlier this week, a group of Hollywood producers issued a statement accusing the actor of “simple antisemitism” over his comments.
Marisa Tomei is the latest Hollywood figure to speak in defense of Mark Ruffalo amid his ongoing controversy sparked by his take on the Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
She took to her Instagram Stories to share a statement by the 1A Committee, which said that the group rejects the “cynical attempt to falsely label” Ruffalo as antisemitic.
Calling the proposed merger “dangerous,” the committee spoke on Ruffalo’s personality, saying he’s someone who has chosen to use his influence “to fight for democracy, human rights, free speech, and the future of the media industry.”
“The original Committee for the First Amendment was founded to stand against blacklisting and intimidation of people for their political beliefs,” the statement said. “We will not stand by while the government or its allies revive those tactics to bully activists into silence today.”
They then called on other stakeholders to “reject” the claims and also lend their voices and platforms against the “dangerous merger.”
Alongside the statement, Tomei wrote, “We stand with Mark.”
Inside Ruffalo’s Antisemitism Controversy
The standoff began last week when Ruffalo shared an old clip of former Oracle CEO Safra Catz seemingly discussing the “profoundly scary technologies” the company built for the Israeli military following the October 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas.
The post was from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Palestinian-led campaign pushing back against Israel’s occupation.
BDS captioned the clip by accusing Oracle of being “complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity — including apartheid and genocide against Palestinians.”
Alongside the clip, the “13 Going on 30” actor noted that the war in Gaza was “a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”
Oracle is led by billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison, who’s reportedly earmarked $40.4 billion in financing for his son David Ellison’s Paramount to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery and complete the merger.
Ruffalo slammed Larry as a “classic Oligarch,” warning that the “most destructive and inhuman forces in the world” would be at the helm of affairs in one of the most important media companies if the merger happens.
Paramount Accuses Ruffalo Of Antisemitism
In response, studio representatives publicly reprimanded the actor, claiming his statements invoked sensitive tropes in service of a business dispute.
“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” a Paramount spokesperson said in a statement, per The Wrap.
“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 insider added.
They also noted that the situation “exposes the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction.”
Ruffalo Rejects Paramount’s Antisemitism Accusation
The “Poor Things” actor rejected the accusations in a follow-up statement, calling Paramount’s stance “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”
“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,” Ruffalo wrote on X. “This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel.”
He went further to mention that his position on the matter comes from his personal political views and shouldn’t be translated as “hostility toward Jewish people,” for whom he claims to have “deep love and respect.”
The actor doubled down on his take, explaining that the merger has “real consequences,” among which are the threat to press freedom and the loss of livelihood for many families.
Nearly 1,000 Hollywood Insiders Blast Ruffalo
Meanwhile, a group of Hollywood producers, including Haim Saban, Lawrence Bender and Teddy Schwarzman, accused Ruffalo of “simple antisemitism” due to his remarks over the deal.
In an online statement issued by a group of nearly 1,000 industry insiders, which calls itself ‘The Brigade’, they claimed the actor invoked tropes and that his comments weren’t only geared toward the merger.
“This is not commentary on a merger. It is not a criticism of a government. It is simple antisemitism, where Jewish executives are portrayed as a secretive and powerful wealth-hoarding elite delighting in mass death,” the group told The Hollywood Reporter.
“Singling out Jewish executives and describing them in terms lifted from centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theories, while invoking Israel as the frame for that attack, is antisemitic,” The Brigade said.
