John Cusack shares support for embattled Mark Ruffalo after actor’s screed against Paramount CEO David Ellison was slammed as ‘antisemitic’
John Cusack has extended support to Mark Ruffalo in the wake of his public feud with Paramount.
Last week Ruffalo, 58, used social media to blast Paramount CEO David Ellison’s proposed bid to takeover Warner Bros Discovery in a $111 billion merger.
David Ellison is the son of billionaire technology mogul, Larry Ellison, co-founder and executive chairman of major software company Oracle, which has provided technological assistance to Israel amid its assault on Gaza.
In his post, Ruffalo claimed Larry Ellison is using Oracle ‘to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition.’ He used the words ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ in his message.
In a public statement, Paramount hit back, blasting the actor’s comments for using ‘antisemitic tropes’.
Ruffalo responded in a second social media post, calling the company’s remarks ‘appalling and fundamentally dishonest,’ and clarifying that his faultfinding had to do with military contracts and executive actions, not Jewish people.
Now, Ruffalo has found a celebrity supporter in Cusack, 60, who took to X in a show of solidarity, retweeting Ruffalo’s rebuff and writing that it was ‘well said.’
John Cusack has extended support to Mark Ruffalo in the wake of his public feud with Paramount; pictured in July
Last week Ruffalo, 58, used social media to blast a proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery. Paramount then called his statements ‘antisemitic’; pictured in February
After Ruffalo called Paramount’s antisemitic claim ‘appalling and fundamentally dishonest,’ Cusack, 60, took to X in a show of solidarity, retweeting Ruffalo’s rebuff and writing that it was ‘well said’
Ruffalo landed himself in hot water over his initial comments on Friday.
He called out Paramount in a post on Instagram Stories, in which he accused billionaires David, 43, and his father Larry, 82, of ‘powering some of the most destructive and inhuman forces in the world.’
Ruffalo shared a 2024 video of Israeli-American business executive Safra Catz, the former Oracle CEO who is now its executive vice chair of the board of directors.
‘This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition,’ Ruffalo wrote to his 20.5 million followers.
He subsequently railed: ‘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.
‘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.’
A Paramount spokesman condemned Ruffalo’s rhetoric, claiming it invoked antisemitic tropes, and stating that applying words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ to a corporate business deal was a ‘bridge too far,’ according to CNN’s Brian Stelter.
On Saturday, Ruffalo slammed that statement, writing: ‘The accusation that I am 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.
Paramount CEO David Ellison pictured during the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles in 2025
The Paramount chairman and CEO is the son of billionaire technology mogul Larry Ellison, who is co-founder and executive chairman of major software company Oracle. Above, the Ellisons attend the LA premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013
‘This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel. 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 added.
‘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,’ he concluded.
In an extended social media post, Ruffalo called the company’s remarks ‘appalling and fundamentally dishonest’
In his initial post, Ruffalo called Larry a ‘classic oligarch’ who would own most of what he disparagingly coined ‘Para Bros.’
‘They are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance,’ Ruffalo wrote.
He noted that 12 Attorneys General were suing to stop the Paramount-Warner Bros merger.
‘It will be catastrophic for our film industry,’ Ruffalo wrote. ‘Merger [sic] like this are almost always bad for workers, consumers, and the industry they tend to dominate.’
The effort to stop the merger is being led by California, whose film industry has struggled in recent times.
Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros could cost Los Angeles County approximately 4,500 film and television jobs, according to a report published by LA County.