While accepting the award for Song of the Year with her brother and musical collaborator, Finneas O’Connell, Billie said: “As grateful as I feel, I honestly don’t feel like I need to say anything but that no one is illegal on stolen land.”
“It’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now,” she continued. “I feel really hopeful in this room, and I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter, and the people matter, and fuck ICE.”
Billie’s speech has riled up a number of conservative folks who feel that young, wealthy celebrities shouldn’t be using their platforms to discuss world politics. And among the critics was entrepreneur and Shark Tank star, Kevin O’Leary.
If you feel like you’ve been seeing Kevin’s face more than usual over the past few months, that’ll probably be because his supporting role in Marty Supreme has given him some renewed relevance. In the Oscar-nominated movie, he portrays a villainous business owner who controls and humiliates Timothée Chalamet’s character, Marty.
So, appearing on Fox News this week, Kevin, a vocal Trump supporter, criticized Billie’s Grammys speech, saying: “It’s the first lesson 101 for celebrity: as you rise up, whether you’re a film star or music star or whatever, shut your mouth, and just entertain.”
And if that was Kevin’s advice to celebrities, then it seems the celebrities are returning the favor. On Feb 5, Mark Ruffalo hopped onto Threads to suggest that Kevin should — checks notes — shut the fuck up.
“Kevin O’Leary why don’t you STFU,” Mark’s note began. “It’s hilarious. You will go on any show and talk shit about any number of things and smugly expect us to listen to you, but you will dig into a real artist that dwarfs anything you dream of doing for actually saying something that resonates with 100’s of millions of people the world over.”
“It’s astounding the fantasy double standard Kevin O’Leary lives in,” he concluded. “You played yourself well in Marty Supreme.”
Mark isn’t the only celebrity who’s come to Billie’s defence; however, his statement is certainly sparking a lot of praise online, with fans describing him as a “real hero.”
“‘You played yourself well in Marty Supreme‘ is actually stone fucking cold. I didn’t know Mark Ruffalo could shit talk like that,” one user wrote, while someone else joked that Mark has “Marvel money and zero fucks to give.”
“I have so much respect for this man in every aspect, [he’s] always on the right side of history,” a X user said of Mark.
Billie, we’ve got your back!
