George Clooney offers wide, mild opinions on Mark Ruffalo, WB merger at Venice Film Festival

On the impending, controversial possible merger between Warner Bros. and Paramount, Clooney only noted, “I don’t see how the merger financially ends up making sense for the people who are trying to do it. We’ll see.” He did express fears about the number of jobs that the mega-merger would inevitably cost.

On the related note of fellow actor Mark Ruffalo’s recent comments about the merger, where Ruffalo’s criticism of the Paramount-heading Ellison family’s ties to the Israeli military garnered widespread criticism and support, Clooney would only offer, “I support Mark Ruffalo’s ability to speak freely,” while adding, “I believe in free speech even when I completely disagree with it.” It’s unclear whether Clooney meant he “completely disagrees” with Ruffalo’s public condemnation of Israel’s relentless violence against Palestinians or if he’s just offering up platitudes. 

Likewise, Clooney decried the rise of AI in filmmaking, while conceding, it’s “going to be a very big part of this industry.” He did joke/not joke that he’d prefer his likeness not be employed “in a tampon commercial 20 years after I’m dead.”

The questions—and the practiced answers—marched along. The Good Night, And Good Luck director said it’s probably not great for conservative billionaires to monopolize the news, but that “there’s a lot of room for great journalists.” And, sure, American democracy is a disaster, but the Midterms “should be a check in balance,” adding, “And then in 2028, we will have a restoration of some normalcy.”

In short, Clooney came prepared to deflect the sort of heat Ruffalo and other performers have gotten for taking too public a stand. On much of anything. He also plugged another upcoming Oceans movie, which he’s very excited about.