While promoting his upcoming film Downsizing, Matt Damon stopped by ABC News this week for an interview on Popcorn With Peter Travers and opened up further about Harvey Weinstein‘s sexual assault allegations.
Damon admitted just how much he knew and didn’t know prior to the Weinstein’s alleged actions becoming public.
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“A lot of people said, ‘Well, Harvey — everybody knew.’ As you were saying, that’s not true,” Damon said. “Everybody knew what kind of guy he was in the sense that if you took a meeting with him, you knew that he was tough and he was a bully, and that was his reputation. And he enjoyed that reputation, because he was making the best movies out there …
“Nobody who made movies for him knew [about the rape allegations] … Any human being would have put a stop to that, no matter who he was. They would’ve said absolutely no. You know what I mean?
“I knew I wouldn’t want him married to anyone close to me. But that was the extent of what we knew. I mean, 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.”
Weinstein was the first in a long line of public figures in the entertainment industry who have been called out for sexual misconduct over the past few months, from Louis C.K. to Al Franken. Damon described this movement as a “watershed moment.”
“I think it’s great,” Damon said. “I think it’s wonderful that women are feeling empowered to tell their stories, and it’s totally necessary…”
But he also said the outrage of the misconduct needs to fit the severity of the action.
“I do believe that there’s a spectrum of behavior, right?” Damon said. “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? Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?”
You can read Matt’s full interview with ABC News here.
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