Mark Ruffalo Thinks He’s ‘Already on a List’ of Paramount’s Banned Actors for Speaking Out Against Warner Bros. Merger: ‘Vindictive Motherf—–s’

Mark Ruffalo said during a recent appearance on the “I’ve Had It” podcast that he thinks he’s “already on a list” of Paramount-Skydance’s banned stars because he’s been so vocally opposed to the studio’s acquisition of Warner Bros.

“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.”

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Speaking about his open letter condemning the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, Ruffalo said that “a lot of people, off the bat, were afraid to sign it.” He added, “They’re afraid because, to quote one prominent agent whose name I won’t divulge here, these are some vindictive motherfuckers, the Ellisons.”

Although there was an initial hesitation, Ruffalo explained that more Hollywood players “have already started to change and come out.”

“What we know is that courage is contagious, and there’s safety in numbers,” Ruffalo 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. The stakes are very, very high. They understand what happens when these mergers happen. The last one was Fox-Disney, and we lost so many jobs, we lost so many shows, we so many films that were in production or in pre-production or being developed, and we know the writing’s on the wall.”

Ruffalo released his open letter in April, and then in May, he wrote an op-ed in The New York Times, rallying people to fight against Paramount-Skydance’s pursuit of Warner Bros. In the op-ed, he also noted that actors and filmmakers were afraid that Paramount-Skydance would retaliate if they took a stand against them.

“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 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.”