Matt Damon starred in three movies in 2017 — The Great Wall, Suburbicon, and Downsizing — all of which failed to make their budget back in the United States. But that wasn’t the most embarrassing thing that happened to the actor last year and into this year: it was his inability to read the room.
Damon, who often worked with disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, said there’s a “spectrum of behavior” when it comes to sexual harassment; the “Lena Dunham of men” later acknowledged that “we’re in this watershed moment” (yes), but (nope) “I think one thing that’s not being talked about is there are a whole sh*tload of guys — the preponderance of men I’ve worked with — who don’t do this kind of thing and whose lives aren’t going to be affected.”
Damon’s comments were tone deaf at best and dismissive at worst, and in an interview on the Today show, he apologized for his remarks. “I really wish I’d listened a lot more before I weighed in on this,” the Thor: Ragnarok guest star told Kathie Lee Gifford. “Ultimately what it is for me is that I don’t want to further anybody’s pain. With anything that I do or say, so for that I’m really sorry.”
He continued, “A lot of those women are my dear friends and I love them and respect them and support what they’re doing and want to be a part of that change and want to go along for the ride, but I should get in the back seat and close my mouth for a while.” Scotty still doesn’t know (it doesn’t matter if “those women” are his friends — they’re people!), but at least he’s trying to learn.
(Via CNN)
