Matt Damon is getting slammed for the second time this week for speaking out about sexual misconduct in Hollywood — this time he appeared to be saying men who aren’t sexual predators should be recognized for their good behavior.
“We’re in this watershed moment, and it’s great, but I think one thing that’s not being talked about is there are a whole s—load 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 told Business Insider on Monday, December 18.
“If I have to sign a sexual-harassment thing, I don’t care, I’ll sign it,” he continued. “I would have signed it before. I don’t do that, and most of the people I know don’t do that.”
Damon also told Business Insider that he wouldn’t immediately refuse to work with men who are accused of sexual misconduct.
“That always went into my thinking,” Damon said. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to work with somebody who – life’s too short for that. But the question of if somebody had allegations against them, you know, it would be a case-by-case basis. You go, ‘What’s the story here?’”
Now celebrities, including Debra Messing, Rose McGowan and Cher, are taking to Twitter to react to Damon’s latest comments.
“Matt Damon- SERIOUSLY? You are a smart man. A privileged, white man,” the Will & Grace star wrote on Monday. “This is NOT the time to ask for a pat on the back. How about we NOT celebrate men who are simply decent human beings. Stay on track, Matt. It’s not about you.”
“Matt Damon is the epitome of a faux ally whose performative wokeness is more about servicing his own ego than the needs of the oppressed & disenfranchised,” the singer tweeted.
“Matt Damon is dense AF,”McGowan, who has taken aim at Damon and pal Ben Affleck before amid the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal, wrote.
Matt Damon is dense AF https://t.co/B9OKeh1WpG
— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) December 18, 2017
As previously reported, the Downsizing actor faced backlash after his comments about the differences between sexual misconduct, harassment and assault in an interview with ABC News’ Peter Travers on Thursday, December 14.
“I do believe that there’s a spectrum of behavior,” Damon said on Thursday. “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?”
His ex-girlfriend Minnie Driver and actress Alyssa Milano slammed Damon on Twitter for his comments.
“I have been a victim of each component of the sexual assault spectrum of which you speak. They all hurt. And they are all connected to a patriarchy intertwined with normalized, accepted–even welcomed– misogyny. We are not outraged because someone grabbed our asses in a picture. We are outraged because we were made to feel this was normal. We are outraged because we have been gaslighted,” the Charmed alum wrote in an open letter on Twitter on Friday, December 15. “We are outraged because we were silenced for so long.”
“God God, seriously?” Driver, who dated Damon after they starred in 1997’s Good Will Hunting together, wrote on Friday.
