• Mark Ruffalo says he believes he’s already blacklisted by Paramount-Skydance for opposing their Warner Bros. acquisition
• The actor quoted a prominent agent calling Larry and David Ellison “vindictive motherfuckers”
• Ruffalo’s open letter against the merger has grown to nearly 5,000 signatures
• Paramount-Skydance’s deal values Warner Bros. at $110 billion, topping Netflix’s rejected $82.7 billion offer
• Ruffalo also fears the merger’s threat to journalism, citing CBS and CNN coming under Ellison control

Mark Ruffalo is under no illusions about where he stands with the Ellison family — and he’s made peace with it.

The four-time Oscar nominee appeared on the I’ve Had It podcast alongside attorney Norm Eisen this week, and he didn’t hold back when talking about the personal cost of his very public campaign against Paramount-Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. He believes he’s already persona non grata with the studio’s new power players — and he’s leaning into it.

“I’m doing this because I know we have to,” Ruffalo said. “And I know no matter what, if I don’t speak out, it’s the same outcome. I’m already on a list. I’m already not a friend of these people. And so you’re either going to fight, or you’re going to lie down. But the same outcome will be if you don’t fight, if you lay down. That’s the way it is with every bully in the world.”

He also passed along a blunt assessment from inside the industry. When talking about why so many Hollywood players were initially reluctant to sign his open letter, Ruffalo quoted a prominent agent — whose name he chose not to share — who summed up the climate in one line: “These are some vindictive motherfuckers, the Ellisons.”

Fear in Hollywood — and Why People Are Starting to Sign Anyway

That fear, Ruffalo says, was palpable when he first circulated the letter in April. A lot of people who privately agreed with him weren’t willing to put their names on it. But that’s been changing. The letter — organized by the Committee for the First Amendment, the Future Film Coalition, the Writers Guild of America, and the Democracy Defenders Fund — has grown from roughly 1,000 signatures at launch to nearly 5,000, adding about 2,000 more in just the past month.

“What we know is that courage is contagious, and there’s safety in numbers,” he said. “A lot of the people on this letter are people who either can afford to be there, like myself, or people who can’t afford to not be there. They’re fighting for their lives.”

He pointed to the Fox-Disney merger as a cautionary tale. “We lost so many jobs, we lost so many shows, so many films that were in production or in pre-production or being developed, and we know the writing’s on the wall.”

Ruffalo also called out Hollywood agencies directly, urging them to stop holding their clients back. “I really hope they start to change their tune and see the writing on the wall here,” he said. “Their clients are gonna suffer more from sitting back and letting this happen than getting out and fighting next to us, the unions too.”

A Deal That Goes Beyond Hollywood

The stakes Ruffalo is describing are significant. Paramount-Skydance, led by CEO David Ellison, is pursuing Warner Bros. Discovery with an offer valuing the deal at around $110 billion — a bid that ultimately beat out Netflix’s $82.7 billion offer, which Netflix walked away from in February after Paramount Skydance launched its hostile takeover with a “superior” $31-per-share offer.

But for Ruffalo, this isn’t just about movies and streaming. The merger would put both CBS and CNN under Ellison ownership, and he’s already alarmed by what he sees happening at CBS. He pointed to the network recently platforming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whom he called an “accused war criminal” — as evidence of political pressure on journalism.

“He would have never been on 60 Minutes outside of this regime,” Ruffalo said. “And that’s another thing that people really understand — there’s a whole other part of this, which is the journalists are starting to sign on. We have journalists who are coming out against this.”

Beyond the podcast, Ruffalo has been escalating his campaign on multiple fronts. In May, he published an op-ed in The New York Times rallying opposition to the deal. In it, he wrote something that cuts to the heart of what he’s been saying publicly: “The most revealing thing about that letter wasn’t the people who signed. It was the people who didn’t. Not because they disagreed — because they were afraid. There are many reasons to block this deal, but we now believe the most fundamental one is what we encountered when asking artists to use their voices: fear. A deep, ugly and pervasive fear of speaking out.”

As for his own future at Paramount — or whatever the combined studio becomes — Ruffalo isn’t expecting a warm welcome. But he also doesn’t sound like someone who’s losing sleep over it.

The post Mark Ruffalo Thinks He’s on a Banned List After WB Merger Fight appeared first on Cream.

• Mark Ruffalo says many Hollywood artists supported his anti-merger letter but were too afraid of retaliation to sign it
• The open letter opposing the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger has now amassed nearly 5,000 signatures
• Ruffalo and co-author Matt Stoller cite CNN passing on a merger segment and Paramount pulling ads from The Ankler as examples of chilling effects
• Signatories include Florence Pugh, Pedro Pascal, Edward Norton, Sofia Coppola, Denis Villeneuve, and 75 Oscar winners
• The deal still awaits regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe, and Ruffalo is urging state attorneys general to block it on antitrust grounds

Mark Ruffalo has a message for the Hollywood artists who quietly told him they agreed with everything he was fighting for — but just couldn’t put their name on it: he sees you, and he’s still fighting for you.

In a New York Times op-ed co-written with American Economic Liberties Project research director Matt Stoller, the four-time Oscar nominee revealed that the most telling thing about the open letter opposing the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger wasn’t who signed it. It was who didn’t.

“The most revealing thing about that letter wasn’t the people who signed. It was the people who didn’t. Not because they disagreed — because they were afraid,” Ruffalo and Stoller wrote. “There are many reasons to block this deal, but we now believe the most fundamental one is what we encountered when asking artists to use their voices: fear. A deep, ugly and pervasive fear of speaking out.”

The open letter, organized by the Committee for the First Amendment, the Future Film Coalition, the Writers Guild of America, and the Democracy Defenders Fund, has grown to nearly 5,000 signatories since it began circulating in April. The list includes an impressive cross-section of the industry — Florence Pugh, Pedro Pascal, and Edward Norton among the actors; Yorgos Lanthimos, Sofia Coppola, and Denis Villeneuve among the directors. Seventy-five Oscar winners have signed. And yet, according to Ruffalo, the number could have been far larger.

“We heard time and time again from artists, when asked to sign this letter, that they supported it but were afraid of retribution. Their fear is not unjustified,” he and Stoller wrote.

The Chilling Effects Are Already Here

To back that up, they pointed to two incidents that illustrate just how real the pressure is. When Rich Rushfield, editorial director and columnist at The Ankler — one of the last independent entertainment trade publications — was spotted at an event carrying a bag of “Block the Merger” buttons, Paramount reportedly pulled its advertising from the outlet. That report, first published by TheWrap, landed like a warning shot across the industry.

Then there was Ruffalo himself. He had been suggested as a guest for a CNN segment discussing the merger, only for a producer to later say the network had decided to pass. According to the op-ed, CNN’s reasoning was blunt: “It’s a delicate subject for us at CNN given Warner Bros. Discovery is our parent company, and there are legal considerations around what we can and cannot cover or say while the merger is ongoing.” A Semafor report had previously flagged the incident.

“This merger will cause many harms in Hollywood,” Ruffalo and Stoller wrote. “But one is already in effect: People are afraid to say what they think about their own industry.”

How Ruffalo and Stoller Got Here

The two first connected in 2023 on a Zoom call during the Writers Guild strike. They found common ground quickly — both believed that Hollywood’s relentless consolidation into ever-larger corporate entities was the root cause of the labor struggles playing out in real time. The argument they’ve built since then is straightforward: more studios means more competition, and more competition means riskier, more ambitious projects actually get made.

As examples, Ruffalo pointed to his own career — his Emmy-winning HBO miniseries I Know This Much Is True and the Best Picture winner Spotlight. “Competition and opportunities for brave storytelling are intrinsically related,” they wrote, “and we both knew that having lots of competitive outlets to produce art and lots of paths to distribute it helps to ensure that riskier, more controversial films and TV shows keep getting made.”

The proposed deal — Paramount Skydance’s $31-per-share offer valuing the combined entity at roughly $111 billion — would reduce the number of major U.S. film studios to just four. Netflix had previously entered the bidding war with an $82.7 billion deal signed with WBD in December, but walked away in February after Paramount’s “superior” offer emerged. The merger is still pending regulatory approval in both the U.S. and Europe.

The Plan: Go Around Federal Regulators

Ruffalo and Stoller aren’t counting on Washington to save the day. Their strategy is to go around federal antitrust enforcers — who they believe are unlikely to act under the current administration — and press state attorneys general to sue on antitrust grounds. They name-checked California AG Rob Bonta, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as elected officials who have already started speaking out, holding hearings, or launching investigations.

They also pointed to recent legal precedents as proof that this approach can work — a federal judge’s injunction blocking the Nexstar-Tegna merger, and a jury ruling against Meta and Google in a landmark social media trial over youth addiction. The message: the playbook exists. It just needs to be used.

“The oligarchs are still in charge. But they are starting to lose their grip on power,” Ruffalo and Stoller wrote. “We’ve seen what happens when monopoly-leaning companies benefit from a fear that silences dissent. But our growing coalition is demonstrating that when we don’t get stuck on the sidelines, don’t bow down to inevitability and join together to fight, we can win. And who knows? If we can defeat the oligarchs trying to seize control of our TV shows and movies, maybe we can do it elsewhere, too.”

A Paramount spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The post Mark Ruffalo: Hollywood Stars Too Scared to Sign Merger Letter appeared first on Cream.