The 47-year-old actor explained the difference between 'patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation.'
Matt Damon has everyone talking.
The 47-year-old actor sparked a conversation on Friday following his controversial comments on sexual misconduct during a Thursday interview with ABC News' Peter Travers.
Damon didn't hold back while giving his opinions on several of the latest sexual harassment and assault scandals, explaining that he believes "there's a spectrum of behavior... [and] there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right? Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?”
“All of that behavior needs to be confronted, but there is a continuum. And on this end of the continuum where you have rape and child molestation or whatever, you know, that’s prison. Right? And that’s what needs to happen. OK? And then we can talk about rehabilitation and everything else," he continued. "That’s criminal behavior, and it needs to be dealt with that way. The other stuff is just kind of shameful and gross.”
For instance, Damon thinks, based on Louis C.K.'s response to the allegations against him, that "that's the sign of somebody who -- well, we can work with that." "I imagine the price that he's paid at this point is so beyond anything he -- I just think that we have to start delineating between what these behaviors are," he added.
Kevin Spacey, meanwhile, doesn't deserve such a pass in Damon's eyes. "That was smart," he said of director Ridley Scott's decision to recast Spacey with Christopher Plummer just weeks before the release of All the Money in the World later this month. "That was a total business decision by Ridley. I haven’t talked to him, but … it wasn’t a creative choice for Ridley. Ridley has a big movie coming out … and nobody right now is in the mood to see a Kevin Spacey movie … And I don’t disagree with his decision to do that. I mean, that movie, I think, will do much better without Kevin in it."
As for Harvey Weinstein, it's clear Damon wants to stay as far away from his former producer as possible.
"[With regard to the rape allegations,] nobody who made movies for him knew … Any human being would have put a stop to that, no matter who he was. They would’ve said absolutely no," Damon said. "I knew I wouldn’t want him married to anyone close to me. But that was the extent of what we knew, you know? And that wasn’t a surprise to anybody. So when you hear Harvey this, Harvey that -- I mean, look at the guy. Of course he’s a womanizer … I mean, I don’t hang out with him."
Minnie Driver, who starred alongside Damon in the Weinstein-produced Good Will Hunting, quickly took to Twitter to slam her former co-star for his comments.
"God God, SERIOUSLY?" she wrote, as other fans shared tweets both in support and criticizing Damon.
See Damon's previous comments on Weinstein in the video below.
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