George Clooney used a press conference at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday morning to defend fellow actor Mark Ruffalo from charges of antisemitism.
Left-wing Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day star Ruffalo was accused by of “antisemitic tropes” after he commented on Paramount’s ongoing attempt to merge with Warner Bros. and possible threats to the ongoing viability of Hollywood, as Breitbart News reported.
He accused the Ellison family of being complicit in the “genocide” against Palestinians as part of his Paramount-Warner merger attack. David Ellison is the CEO of Paramount Skydance which Ruffalo called “inhuman.”
The controversy was highlighted in a question asked by Variety’s Elsa Keslassy. Clooney responded:
I support Mark Ruffalo’s ability to speak freely.
It’s ridiculous. We’re not going to ban speech. I believe in free speech even when I completely disagree with it. That’s important. In fact, it’s part of how democracy works.
Clooney went on to call the pending merger “a complicated thing” and suggested he “doesn’t know how it works out.”
“I don’t see how the merger financially ends up making sense for the people who are trying to do it. We’ll see. I worry when a big company swallows up another company,” he said, per Variety.
“I always worry whenever big companies are consolidating because it means a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.”