Damon apologizes for controversial #MeToo comments
Matt Damon is ready to sit down and shut up.
The “Downsizing” actor apologized for the slew of controversial comments he’s made on the #MeToo movement in recent weeks, and said it’s time he keeps his mouth shut.
“I really wish I’d listened a lot more before I weighed in on this. I think ultimately what it is for me is that I don’t want to further anybody’s pain with anything that I do or say, so for that, I’m really sorry,” Damon said on the “Today” show today.
He added that the Time’s Up initiative, launched by more than 300 women in Hollywood to help combat sexual harassment, has his full support.
“(With) Time’s Up, 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 backseat and close my mouth for while,” he said.
Damon faced backlash last month after he declared Hollywood should spend more time focusing on the industry men that aren’t predators.
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“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 — tload 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 told Business Insider.
He also told the outlet that he wouldn’t be opposed to working with stars accused of sexual harassment or assault, but that he’d have to approach each situation on a “case-by-case basis.”
In another interview published days earlier, Damon also demonstrated little understating of the #MeToo movement, saying that there was a “spectrum of behavior” regarding types of assault and that Louis C.K. should be given another chance.
“There’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?” he told ABC News. “Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?”
The comments drew major criticism, including from his “Good Will Hunting” co-star and ex-girlfriend Minnie Driver.
“Gosh it’s so interesting (profoundly unsurprising) how men with all these opinions about women’s differentiation between sexual misconduct, assault and rape reveal themselves to be utterly tone deaf and as a result, systemically part of the problem,” she wrote on Twitter.
The actor also faced heat from actress Alyssa Milano, who blasted him on Twitter.
“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,” she wrote.