Matt Damon has been on Minnie Driver’s mind lately. And it has nothing to do with their breakup more than 19 years ago. The actress, 47, took to Twitter to slam a recent interview where her Good Will Hunting costar suggested there are varying degrees of sexual misconduct and they should not all be viewed in the same way.
“I felt I desperately needed to say something. I’ve realized that most me men, good men, the men that I love, there is a cut-off. They simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily basis,” she told The Guardian in an article published Sunday, December 17. “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 personal, it’s galling when a powerful man steps up and starts dictating the terms whether he intends it or not.”
Addressing the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Damon told ABC News’ Peter Travers that accused men are being unfairly put into “one big bucket” and then stated that there’s a “spectrum of behavior” when it comes to sexual misconduct.
“You know, there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?” he said on September 14. “Both of those behaviors need to be confronted, and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?”
An outraged Driver fired off a series of tweets, along with a link to Damon’s interview, the following day.
“God God, SERIOUSLY?” she wrote. “There are so many men I love who do NOT frame the differentiation between sexual misconduct assault and rape as an excuse or worse — our problem. Such bollocks.”
While speaking to The Guardian, Driver also addressed Damon’s comments on Louis C.K., in which he stated that the comedian, who admitted to masturbating in front of women without their permission, likely won’t do it again because of his remorseful apology. “That’s the sign of somebody who — well, we can work with that,” Damon stated. “I don’t know Louis C.K. I’ve never met him. I’m a fan of his, but I don’t imagine he’s going to do those things again. You know what I mean? I imagine the price that he’s paid at this point is so beyond anything.”
Driver was appalled that her ex would defend Louis C.K. “It seems to me that he thinks that because he didn’t rape somebody — so as far as we know — that what he did wasn’t bad,” she told the British outlet.
Driver previously opened up about her own experience with sexual assault at the age of 17. “I was on vacation in Greece, and this guy, kinda elbow-grabbed me, and said ‘You’re going to dance with me,’” she revealed on Sirius XM’s StandUP in 2016. “I said ‘no’ and I pulled my arm away from him, and he grabbed me by the back of my hair. I tried to kick him, and then he punched me.”
She claims authorities tried to place the blame on her at the time. “The way the police presented it was ‘this guy was just having a good time and if you’d gone along with it, it would’ve been fine,” she explained. “if you’d just danced him, you wouldn’t be in this position that you’re now.”
