It took several weeks and multiple interview, but it has finally happened.
Matt Damon has finally said the right thing about the ongoing sexual harassment scandal in Hollywood.
On Tuesday morning, the veteran actor sat down with The Today Show and reflected on a series of remarks he made last month that got him in boiling hot water.
“I really wished I listened a lot more before I weighed in on this,” Damon said on the program, referring to controversial comments he made in regard to the #MeToo movement.
He’s talking, of course, about a chat Damon had in mid-December with Peter Travis of ABC.
In this chat, Damon grew very defensive of his own gender, taking the stance that not all men are sexual predators and not all the sexual violations are equal.
“There’s a difference between patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?” Damon asked, stating the obvious.
Over the past few months, of course, stars from Kevin Spacey to Harvey Weinstein to Louis CK to Matt Lauer have been accused of heinous acts toward women.
“We are so energized to kind of get retribution,” Damon continued, sticking his foot deeper and deeper into his mouth and adding:
“We live in this culture of outrage and injury, and we’re going to have to correct enough to kind of go, ‘Wait a minute. None of us came here perfect."”
Talk about missing the point and getting up high on one’s own pedestal, huh?
Damon now acknowledges this.
“Ultimately, what it is for me is that I don’t want to further anybody’s pain with anything that I do or say,” Damon said this morning. “For that, I am really sorry.”
In a follow-up December interview, Damon emphasized that a majority of men treat women with respect.
“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,” he said back then.
Yeah. We’re pretty sure innocent men are not the victims here.
Again, Damon has at last come around to this realization.
Speaking of the #MeToo movement and the Time’s Up movement, Damon now says the following:
“A lot of those women are my dear friends and I love them and respect them and support what they’re doing and want to be a part of that change and want to go along for the ride, but I should get in the back seat and close my mouth for a while.”
Yes. Finally. There it is.
Men need to sit back and just listen to women explain what so many have gone through over the course of their lifetimes and/or their careers.
Following his initial statement(s), celebrities such as Alyssa Milano and Minnie Driver came out and slammed the actor.
Tweeted Milano, for example:
“Dear Matt Damon, It’s the micro that makes the macro.
“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. We are outraged because we were silenced for so long. … There are different stages of cancer.
“Some more treatable than others. But it’s still cancer.”
So very well said.
We’re glad to see what Matt Damon now agrees.