Everyone was surprised when Matt Damon, Hollywood's ready-salted nice lad, came out in defence of several prominent men during last year’s #MeToo revelations.
The actor’s controversial comments to ABC News – that we live in a “culture of outrage” and that “there’s a difference between patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation” – incited a backlash on social media.
Several high-profile actress attacked Damon, including Minnie Driver, Rose McGowan, Debra Messing and Alyssa Milano.
He then apologised and promised to “close [his] mouth for a while”, but many believe his comments led to a cameo in Oceans 8 ultimately being left on the cutting room floor.
That’s a theory director Gary Ross was keen to stamp out during his interview with the Hollywood Reporter at the film’s New York premiere, in which he was joined by the actor.
"[Picking the cameos] is an eclectic process of: how does it fit in the story and how is the narrative unfolding?"
"This more than any movie I’ve done had a really copious editorial process where you play with stuff, you find stuff. I’ve never shot anything after I’ve wrapped on any other movie before, but in a heist movie and an ensemble movie, you’re still working on the play. And we did a bunch of that, and so that was satisfying as well."
Speaking to Damon, he said: "There were a lot of people who were gracious to us that just for editorial and storytelling reasons didn’t make it in and some who did. If you know, we ended up shooting probably another 10 days afterwards, so there’s a lot of material and a lot of shaping. But it really just comes to storytelling."
Oceans 8 is out now.
