4 Times Matt Damon Ruined All Your Hopes and Dreams
It's 2015, and Matt Damon is a jerk. Through a series of racist homophobic unfortunate events, the once beloved Academy Award winning BFF of Ben Affleck fell from one of America's leading men to a poster boy of privileged ignorance. We're giving Damon a heaping of education hoping that he won't continue to make the mistakes he has been. So Matt Damon, here is how you went wrong and ruined everything good and nice in the world.
The Project Greenlight Incident.
The first time in recent weeks that Damon appeared to be more out of touch than a martian was during the season four premiere of his filmmaking show Project Greenlight. The competition show works to find a director for a feature film. In the premiere episode Damon, while talking about diversity with Dear White People Producer Effie Brown, interrupted her to correct her about how non-important it was to have a diverse film staff. Essentially he said you just need to look diverse (onscreen) but can be completely whitewashed behind the lens. And here is where #DamonSplaining was born.
His Pretentious Attitude About The Martian
Talking with the Bangalore Mirror the interviewer mentioned Jessica Chastain's intense research for the role including meetings at NASA. Then how did Matt Damon prepare for the role? He had director Ridley Scott sit him down and describe what to do in every scene while going over every line. Sure we get that Damon was the lead character in the film, but a little homework for a blockbuster film wouldn't have hurt.
His Comments About a Bourne Screenwriter
While it's nice to hear an actor get candid in interviews, especially about movies they've turned down, Damon's bark turned into bite when discussing the Bourne series in 2011. After acknowledging that he wouldn't return for The Bourne Legacy the Boston-native tore the screenwriter a new one for his work on the prior film in the series. "I don't blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in. It’s just that it was unreadable. This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude. It's terrible. It's really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left." Universal issued an apology before this GQ feature was even released, and Matt Damon's ego was left intact.
His Insensitive Comments About the LGBT Community
After talking about his role in Behind the Candelabra to The Guardian, Damon reminded the interviewer that people thought him and Ben Affleck were gay once. This is where he started to dig his hole. He tried to save face by saying he didn't know how to respond to the gay rumors, "I don’t want to, like [imply] it’s some sort of disease – then it’s like I’m throwing my friends under the bus." Damon then proceeded to mention that gay men would have less casting issues if they were mysterious about their sexuality. He tried covering this up by saying straight actors should do the same but it's worth noting that Matt Damon's wife was part of the conversation in this very interview.