Mark Ruffalo says actors were “afraid” to sign open letter opposing Warner Bros and Paramount merger
Mark Ruffalo has revealed that many actors were “afraid” to sign an open letter opposing the forthcoming merger between Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Skydance.
In a new op-ed for The New York Times, alongside American Economic Liberties Project research director Matt Stoller, Ruffalo shed light on why many household names often don’t use their platform to call out worrying changes in the industry.
“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 shared.
The topic is an open letter shared in April, which saw over 1000 industry titans, such as Glenn Close and Joaquin Phoenix, publicly oppose the proposed merger after Paramount Skydance outbid Netflix for a $110.9 deal in February. The letter has since amassed more than 4,000 signatures.
Ruffalo and Stoller continued, “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 op-ed adds, “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.”
The pair also revealed that Ruffalo found himself pulled from a CNN discussion of the merger, as a producer deemed it a “delicate subject at CNN given Warner Bros. Discover is our parent company, and there are legal considerations around what we can and cannot cover or say.”
Though Ruffalo and Stoller suggest their colleagues are afraid for their future, they note that another consequence is already underway: “This merger will cause many harms in Hollywood, but one is already in effect: People are afraid to say what they think about their own industry.”
The op-ed concluded decisively, “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.”
Hopefully, they added, “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.”
It’s not hard to guess exactly whom the pair mean here: Ruffalo has been an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, having been seen attending a ‘No Kings’ anti-Trump protest in New York last June, which he said he took part in as “our democracy is in real trouble”.
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