Over the past week or so, Matt Damon has been on the press circuit promoting his new movie Downsizing, which actually looks pretty interesting. But I haven’t been able to think much about that because I’ve been too busy feeling annoyed every time he opens his mouth to speak about sexual harassment in Hollywood.
First let me just say that, generally speaking, Matt Damon seems like a pretty nice guy. But a lot of nice guys have some pretty terrible opinions when it comes to women’s issues, and he might just be one of them. Obviously, Damon’s big break (Good Will Hunting) came via Harvey Weinstein and Miramax, but that shouldn’t necessarily be held against him. I still love that movie deeply and have the Elliot Smith–laden soundtrack in heavy rotation. However, my favorable opinions of the actor are quickly taking a turn. And his ex-girlfriend Minnie Driver—who famously found out they were broken up via an interview on Oprah—agrees, as she took to Twitter to express her distaste for a recent interview the actor did with ABC News.
The main quote in question starts out fine and then veers into problematic territory. Damon said:
“I think we’re in this watershed moment. I think it’s great. I think
it’s wonderful that women are feeling empowered to tell their
stories, and it’s totally necessary…. I do believe that there’s a spectrum
of behavior, right? And we’re going to have to figure—you know,
there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt
and rape or child molestation, right? Both of those behaviors need
to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they
shouldn’t be conflated, right? You know, we see somebody like
Al Franken, right?—I personally would have preferred if they
had an Ethics Committee investigation, you know what I
mean? It’s like at what point—you know, we’re so energized
to kind of get retribution, I think.“And we live in this culture of outrage and injury, and, you know,
that we’re going to have to correct enough to kind of go, ‘Wait
a minute. None of us came here perfect.’ You know what I
mean?… The Louis C.K. thing, I don’t know all the details.
I don’t do deep dives on this,but I did see his statement, which
kind of, which [was] arresting to me. When he came out and
said, “I did this. I did these things. These women are all telling
the truth.” And I just remember thinking, ‘Well, that’s the sign
of somebody who—well, we can work with that’…”
Please, just stop. Don’t tell women that we need to self-correct our outrage when we’ve been the ones dealing with moments of harassment—both big and small—for all these years. Driver expressed exasperation over Damon’s initial comments and then further clarified her comments to the Guardian, saying, “I felt I desperately needed to say something. I’ve realised that most men, good men, the men that I love, there is a cutoff in their ability to understand. They simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level. I honestly think that until we get on the same page, you can’t tell a woman about their abuse. A man cannot do that. No one can. It is so individual and so personal, it’s galling when a powerful man steps up and starts dictating the terms, whether he intends it or not.”
Alyssa Milano had some thoughts too.
But it wasn’t just one quote that has Damon in hot water. He has also said of a hypothetical colleague, “If it’s a colleague…I don’t know…I guess it depends on the situation and the allegation and how believable I think it is.” And of Harvey Weinstein: “I knew I wouldn’t want him married to anyone close to me. But that was the extent of what we knew, you know? And that wasn’t a surprise to anybody. So when you hear ‘Harvey this, Harvey that’—I mean, look at the guy. Of course he’s a womanizer…. I mean, I don’t hang out with him.”
Until Matt Damon figures out how to speak more thoughtfully about the issue, maybe it would be best if he just said nothing at all.