Guy Pearce apologises to Jewish News after sharing antisemitic conspiracy posts

Hollywood actor Guy Pearce has apologised to Jewish News after admitting he had shared “misinformation and falsehoods” in a series of social media posts promoting the Palestinian cause.

It follows revelations that Pearce, nominated this year for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for The Brutalist, had circulated material featuring America’s most notorious white supremacist, Nick Fuentes, as well as posts claiming that the “top three pornography companies are owned by Jewish people”, that Israel was behind 9/11, and that Israeli officials ordered the murder of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Pearce told Jewish News: “It has been brought to my attention that, in my support of Palestine, I have inadvertently re-posted articles, and/or statements, that have contained misinformation and falsehoods. I am aware how sharing inaccurate content can cause confusion and distress; for this I am deeply sorry. I will certainly endeavour to be more diligent in future to verify anything I share online.”

Pearce, whose film credits also include The King’s Speech, The Hurt Locker, LA Confidential, Memento and Iron Man 3, also shared Instagram posts via Twitter earlier this month from an account calling itself “Corefitnessbynaz2”. The posts read: “Remember, when Zionists tell you Islam will destroy America… While several major Las Vegas casinos/hotels that have caused gambling addictions, debt and prostitution were created and owned by Jewish Zionists… The Zionists (not Jews) want you to fear the people who stand against the corruption they are creating.”

Pearce is a longstanding pro-Palestine supporter, tweeting earlier this week: “I’ve never been so disgusted by a group of people in my life as I am by Israelis. Everyday I witness their utter disregard & disdain for Palestinian life. It is shameful & sets humanity further backwards with every vile act like this.”

Earlier this year he signed up to the Film Workers for Palestine boycott of Israeli film institutions considered complicit “in genocide and apartheid”.

The actor posts on Twitter regularly, usually as links to Instagram videos, and almost all of them promoting the Palestinian cause. However, some videos go further – including sharing footage of Nick Fuentes, perhaps the most notorious far-right white nationalist in America.

One such video, the link to which was shared by Pearce, has the caption “We are ruled by monsters”. In the video Fuentes says: “The Talmudic Judaism, that is the Judaism of today. Without it, and you can’t interpret Jewish law. There’s an Israel Jewish historian named Israel Shahak, he is considered the Thomas Aquinas of Judaism, the greatest scholar of Jewish law, he said that every Jew should pray for the death of every Christian every day. And this is loaded up in the Talmud, it’s loaded up in kabbalah, the mystic tradition, which is this intense hatred and distrust, particularly of Christians, but also of all non-Jews in general.”

In reality, Israel Shahak was widely considered in the Jewish world to be both a fantasist and a creator and purveyor of antisemitic polemics.

Another Instagram post Pearce shared questioned the events of 9/11, with the accompanying wording saying: “The official explanation left too many unanswered questions. Even the way the towers fell – straight down into their own footprint – looked eerily like controlled demolitions to many who watched it happen. Years later, files remain sealed, testimonies are ignored, and anyone asking questions gets labelled a conspiracy theorist. But the truth doesn’t fear investigation.”

Another went further. Headlined, “They don’t want you to know the real truth behind 9/11”, it cites an interview Netanyahu gave in 2006 about a book he wrote in the mid-1990s warning that if the world didn’t wake up to “militant Islam” it would “bring down the World Trade Centre”.

The video attempts to suggest that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks, without acknowledging the 1993 attempt by Islamist terrorists to destroy the Twin Towers via a bomb in the basement. The post accompanying the video begins: “Here’s what the 9/11 really was. Most will call the terrorists Arabs! But this isn’t even close to the truth. Because they were the Israelis!”

Pearce, who is Australian and got his first acting break on the soap opera Neighbours, also shared a post featuring an interview with Bob Carr, who briefly served as Australia’s foreign minister in the early 2010s.

In the interview, conducted by an Australian Islamic media channel, One Path Network, Carr claims: “The Israel Jewish lobby in Australia is a foreign influence operation. It’s designed to put the interests of Israel above the interests of Australia and its foreign policy… no one else organises donations to attempt to elevate its influence in the way the Jewish lobby does in Australia.”

Pearce also shared content containing the claim that Benjamin Netanyahu “offered Charlie Kirk more than $150 million in cash to adopt a more supportive stance on Israel, but Kirk refused the offer so as not to be associated with the genocide in Gaza… American broadcaster Harrison Smith stated Kirk said “I think Israel will kill me if I turn against it’, which is what ultimately happened.”

Pearce shared the link to the Instagram video via Twitter, with the comment “Gosh, what a surprise…”

Pearce also shared a link to an Instagram video ostensibly showing an Israeli settler in the West Bank draining a water tank belonging to a Palestinian family. Pearce had captioned his tweet: “But he’s one of the chosen ones, so he’s allowed to ruin your life.”

A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Guy Pearce has a long track record of amplifying material that pushes some of the most toxic antisemitic conspiracies. His posts have not been harmless activism; they have spread ideas that sit firmly within the canon of classic antisemitism. His apology is a step in the right direction, and it is right that he acknowledges the damage that misinformation can cause. But apologies are easy to give after the fact. What matters now is whether he genuinely changes his behaviour and stops promoting this kind of content.

“Agents, studios and commercial partners will be watching closely. They must think very carefully about the figures they endorse, and whether Guy Pearce’s actions — not just his latest words — demonstrate that he is a responsible person to be associated with.”