Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo publicly attacked Paramount Skydance's CEO and his father, prompting a lengthy response from the studio as its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery remains blocked in court.

According to a Friday article by Variety, Ruffalo posted a video on Instagram showing Safra Catz, executive vice chair of Oracle, discussing how the company supported Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Oracle was co-founded and is chaired by Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison. David Ellison, who founded Skydance Media, took control of Paramount in 2025 when his studio merged with the company in a deal backed heavily by his family's fortune.

Catz, who is Israeli, is shown in the video speaking on a panel a few years ago, according to Variety. She also serves on Paramount's board of directors, per the company's website.

"There's a few things that we did that I really can't talk about to advance the agenda for the Israeli military," Catz said. "But we have some really profoundly scary technology at Oracle, and we wanted to make sure that it was available for the effort."

Ruffalo, an Oscar nominee with a long record of off-screen political activism, followed the video with a post warning about Oracle and Paramount's merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. The proposed deal would unite Paramount's CBS network, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon and Paramount+ streaming service with Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO, Max, CNN and Warner Bros. studio, placing two of Hollywood's oldest film studios under one roof. President Donald Trump's Department of Justice greenlit the merger earlier this year, but a judge has halted it after a lawsuit filed by a dozen state attorneys general, who contend the combination would give the Ellison family too much control over news and entertainment.

"Trump pushed this illegal merger through," Ruffalo said in his Instagram story. He described Oracle as "the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David's Warner Bros acquisition."

Ruffalo further cautioned that Oracle's "really scary technologies" raised in Catz's comments "will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you." He also called Larry Ellison "a classic Oligarch" and said that Ellison and Catz are "really profoundly Scary people."

Paramount responded with a lengthy statement, which CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter shared in a post on X. Stelter's own network is part of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company Paramount is seeking to acquire.

"This brings us to a moment to lower the temperature, not raise it," Paramount wrote.

The studio dismissed Ruffalo's comments as "antisemitic tropes" that are "a bridge too far."

Addressing the merger, Paramount wrote: "We understand people feel strongly about this merger and are hopeful and expect that it will be judged based on the legal merits, not underlying bias."

The merger's fate now rests with the court weighing the states' lawsuit, which will determine whether the deal can close.