Matt Damon has spoken again about sexual predators in Hollywood, claiming that “one thing” not being spoken about is the men who don’t fall into that category.
In a new interview, the actor brought up the importance of remembering those around him who haven’t acted improperly.
“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 shitload 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 said to Business Insider.
The star, promoting high-concept comedy Downsizing, was also asked whether he would still work with someone who was a known predator.
“That always went into my thinking,” he 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?’”
He also reasserted that he had no part to play in any form of sexual impropriety. “If I have to sign a sexual-harassment thing, I don’t care, I’ll sign it,” he said. “I would have signed it before. I don’t do that, and most of the people I know don’t do that.”
Damon has found himself under fire for referring to a “spectrum of behavior” to consider with regards to sexual harassment in an interview last week.
“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?” Damon said to ABC’s Peter Travers. “Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?”
The comments drew ire from his Good Will Hunting co-star and ex-girlfriend Minnie Driver who spoke to the Guardian on Saturday, claiming that men like Damon “simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level”.
“There is no hierarchy of abuse – that if a woman is raped [it] is much worse than if woman has a penis exposed to her that she didn’t want or ask for,” she said. “You cannot tell those women that one is supposed to feel worse than the other. And it certainly can’t be prescribed by a man. The idea of tone deafness is the idea there [is] no equivalency.”
