Matt Damon, who’s gone from a beloved A-list leftie with a heart of gold to the poster child for shitty liberal dudes, is determined to keep his bad opinions news cycle-relevant. So he offered his take on Hollywood sexual harassment, and while he praised women who are “feeling empowered to tell their stories,” he also condemned the “culture of outrage.”
“I do believe that there’s a spectrum of behavior, right?” Damon said in an interview with film critic Peter Travers. "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?”
Damon, who’s been accused of personally trying to cover up Harvey Weinstein’s offenses, also feels bad for serial dick-whipper-outer Louis C.K.:
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.” 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 that he—I just think that we have to kind of start delineating between what these behaviors are.
Naturally, women who’ve experienced of sexual harassment—who unlike Louis C.K., are the actual victims here—did not take kindly to Damon’s remarks. Alyssa Milano took to Twitter with a moving open letter.
But one of the best responses was also the simplest. Minnie Driver, Damon’s Good Will Hunting co-star and one-time real-life girlfriend, proved that burns from exes are the most fiery burns of all.
