Jane Fonda and her 1A Committee formally defended actor and activist Mark Ruffalo Tuesday in a memo denouncing Paramount for labeling him “antisemitic” after he criticized the Ellison family, Oracle’s support of Israel and Paramount’s proposed $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Oscar winner accused the studio of smearing the actor in an effort to deflect attention from legitimate concerns over the Ellisons’ business ties in the Middle East and more.
“Mark Ruffalo has a First Amendment right to speak out about politics, powerful corporations and this dangerous merger — full stop,” Fonda said in a statement. “Calling his criticism antisemitic is a smear to delegitimize criticism of the merger and to distract from the question Paramount would rather not answer: Should one company be allowed to accumulate this much power over our movies, television and news?”
Fonda added that the original Committee for the First Amendment was founded to stand against such tactics from “bully activists.”
Fonda’s defense comes after Ruffalo attacked the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger in a Friday Instagram post, denouncing the business deal in part by drawing connections to the Ellison family’s ties to what he called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
“This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros. acquisition,” Ruffalo wrote at the time. “These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you. 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.”
A Paramount spokesperson quickly responded on Friday in a exclusive statement to TheWrap, condemning Ruffalo’s remarks as “antisemitic” and “a bridge too far.”
“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. 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 read. “This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”
Ruffalo, in turn, responded to Paramount’s statement on Saturday, writing in a lengthy social media post that the accusation that he’s antisemitic is “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 said in his follow-up post. “This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel.”
Paramount did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on Fonda’s statement.
Read Fonda and the 1A Committee’s memo in full below:
On Friday, Paramount accused actor and 1A Committee member Mark Ruffalo of antisemitism after he criticized the Ellison family, Oracle’s military technology contracts with Israel, and the proposed $111 billion Paramount–Warner Bros. merger.
The 1A Committee rejects this cynical attempt to falsely label Mark Ruffalo as antisemitic and sees through their effort to distract from the issue at hand: the dangerous consolidation of media power that would result from the proposed Paramount–Warner Bros. merger.
Mark is an artist who has chosen to use his influence to fight for democracy, human rights, free speech, and the future of the media industry. He has taken stands against political actions, corporate relationships and the harms of the merger. Whether or not others agree with those views, he has the right to express them without being subjected to a campaign of intimidation in an attempt to silence him and others who dare to speak out.
“Paramount and the Ellison family should be ashamed of themselves,” said Bruce Cohen, Academy Award-winning producer and member of the 1A Committee Steering Committee. “Especially as a Jewish American, I find it deeply troubling to see false accusations of antisemitism used to silence legitimate political criticism in this country. Antisemitism is real and dangerous, which is precisely why the charge should never be used as a cudgel against people whose political views you dislike, in this case as dedicated a crusader for democracy as Mark, whom we are proud to have as a Committee member and to be in this fight with.”
“Mark Ruffalo has a First Amendment right to speak out about politics, powerful corporations and this dangerous merger — full stop,” said Jane Fonda, actor and founder of the 1A Committee. “Calling his criticism antisemitic is a smear to delegitimize criticism of the merger and to distract from the question Paramount would rather not answer: should one company be allowed to accumulate this much power over our movies, television and news? The original Committee for the First Amendment was founded to stand against blacklisting and intimidation of people for their political beliefs. We will not stand by while the government or its allies revive those tactics to bully activists into silence today.”
1A Committee calls on those in the media and others with a platform and influence to reject these claims publicly and share your opposition to this dangerous merger, and remains focused on blocking this merger and preventing the consolidation of billionaire control over entertainment and news.
