George Clooney has defended Mark Ruffalo’s right to criticise the proposed $111bn Paramount takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, saying he is concerned about the consequences of further consolidation in Hollywood.

Speaking in Venice ahead of receiving the festival’s Golden Lion for lifetime achievement, Clooney said he supported Ruffalo’s “ability to speak freely” about the proposed merger, while expressing his own doubts about the deal.

“I worry when a big company swallows up another company,” Clooney said. “I always worry whenever big companies are consolidating because it means a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.”

Ruffalo has emerged as one of the most outspoken opponents of the Paramount-Warner Bros deal. In a social media post last month, the Marvel star attacked the proposed merger over its potential consequences for Hollywood, while also turning his criticism on the family behind Paramount. David Ellison, the company’s chief executive, is the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and Ruffalo accused the Ellison family of being complicit the “genocide” of Palestinians, arguing that it was “built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle”.

Ruffalo highlighted Oracle’s ties to the Israeli military, sharing a video of the company’s executive vice-chair and Paramount board member Safra Catz discussing technologies Oracle had used after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel. His comments prompted a backlash from Paramount, which accused him of invoking antisemitic tropes.

Ruffalo rejected the accusation and has continued to defend his criticism of the deal and of Oracle’s business ties to Israel. More than 170 Jewish artists, academics and public figures subsequently signed an open letter defending the actor and warning against attempts to silence criticism of Israel or the proposed merger.

“I support Mark Ruffalo’s ability to speak freely,” Clooney said. “I think that that’s ridiculous. We’re not going to ban speech. I believe in free speech even when I completely disagree with it. That’s important, right? In fact, it’s part of how a democracy works.

“There are going to be people tonight in the room that are going to disagree with most everything I say or stand for. Fair enough. That’s how it’s supposed to be. We’re supposed to argue these things out and come to a conclusion based on the information that we take in … I will always support Mark Ruffalo’s ability to speak freely. I like him. He’s a good man.”

Clooney said he did not believe the Paramount-Warner deal necessarily made financial sense. “I don’t know how this goes through. There are so many issues involved,” he said.

Clooney also warned that artificial intelligence will become “a very big part of this industry” but will “hurt us in a lot of ways”. He joked: “I would like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I’m dead.”

The prominent Trump critic said the US midterm elections in November “should be a check and balance”, adding that in 2028 “with any luck, we’ll have some restoration into normalcy”.

He also raised concerns about the concentration of media ownership among the world’s wealthiest people. Asked about the state of journalism, he pointed to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, and Elon Musk, owner of X.

Clooney will accept the lifetime achievement award on Wednesday evening. It is a striking case of life imitating art: last year, he attended the festival for Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, in which he played an ageing Hollywood star travelling to Italy to receive a lifetime achievement honour. Clooney will now undergo the same ritual in real life, with Laura Dern – his Jay Kelly co-star – presenting the award.

The honour caps a relationship with Venice stretching back almost three decades. Clooney first appeared at the festival with Out of Sight in 1998 and has returned with films including Good Night, and Good Luck, Michael Clayton and Gravity.