Industry Leaders Condemn Antisemitic Remarks in Mark Ruffalo's Paramount Criticism

A group of prominent figures in the entertainment industry, among them Haim Saban, Teddy Schwarzman and Lawrence Bender, signed a statement condemning remarks made by actor Mark Ruffalo about Paramount Pictures. The signatories, representing a network of roughly 1,000 Jewish filmmakers, executives, and allies, said Ruffalo’s comments singled out Jewish executives and invoked language associated with historic antisemitic conspiracy theories.

The statement, issued on behalf of the organization known as The Brigade, warned that such rhetoric mirrors language once used by the Nazis, Soviet regime and the Ku Klux Klan, and that it can fuel real-world attacks on Jews. It emphasized that criticism of a corporate merger should not involve references to Jewish identity or Israel.

Ruffalo, who has publicly opposed Paramount’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, posted a video of former Oracle CEO Safra Catz, a Paramount board member, and suggested she “revels in… genocide.” He also accused the Ellison family, owners of Paramount, of consolidating wealth and harming workers.

Paramount responded that it was “troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute.” The studio’s statement was backed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Creative Communities for Peace. Ruffalo rebutted the accusation on social media, calling it “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”

The controversy highlights ongoing tensions between industry stakeholders over the merger and broader concerns about the use of hate-based language in public debates.