Kaiser already covered these photos of Matt Damon at the London premiere of The Martian last night. We are in consensus that this haircut is making him lose the hot. Plus there’s the issue of his incredibly tone deaf and cliched comments on diversity, for which he barely apologized. That made me sour on him more than anything else, but at least he didn’t deliberately cut that segment out of Project Greenlight. Damon seemed to realize that he put his foot in it, despite his inadequate explanation, and he’s said some more words about it. This time, I think he gets it. Damon’s Martian co-star Chiwetel Ejiofor (bonus pics of him below) was also asked about #Damonsplaining and he was very diplomatic, as you would expect.
Speaking at the premiere of his new movie, The Martian, Matt said he wasn’t surprised by the backlash.
He told Newsbeat: “When I saw the clip, I understood it because it was not in context. So, no (to being surprised at the backlash), I understand it.
“Look, it’s a very sensitive subject and the shame of it for me is that I agree with the people who were upset.
“So, that part was a little difficult. But in terms of our own Greenlight contest, we ended up with a group of 20 finalists. 16 or 17 were white men and we have to recruit more aggressively in other areas and do better so that our contestant pool is more diverse.
“Because all kinds of people are making movies and all kinds of people want to make movies. And the whole point of Greenlight is to give people access, so we’ve got to do a better job. And we will…”
Chiwetel was asked what he thought of Matt’s comments on the show and he told Newsbeat: “Well, I don’t know if I saw the entire context of it, so I don’t really know if I can really speak about it in that sense.
“Diversity is going to be something that we’re going to have to carry on working at and there seems to be a kind of cottage industry of trying to make that as narrow as possible.
“But we’re going to try and do our best.”
If Damon’s words were taken out of context (I don’t think they were on the entire show, but they necessarily were in the clip that was circulated online) then he could have ensured that the episode was edited to show him in a better light. It’s hard to know whether he exerts that level of control over his projects, but you can be damn sure that Affleck does and that he would have cut something like that out. So I’m coming around on Damon and I just might see The Martian on opening weekend now.
Damon has a ton more interviews which Kaiser sent me because she’s awesome like that. He talked to The NY Daily News about his buddy Ben Affleck’s comeback and he also explained what’s going on in the upcoming Bourne movie, filming now. “[Bourne] has his memory back, but that doesn’t mean he knows everything. It’s 12 years since Jason Bourne has been on the grid. So we have to answer the questions, Where’s he been? What’s he doing? What gets him going again? So once we solved all that, then we had a movie.” There’s much more on The News, including his thoughts about why we need space travel. “We are going to need to get some of us off this rock, because we’re literally one extinction level away from wiping any trace of humanity away for all time.” OK. I like him again.
Damon also revealed that he almost played Daredevil, that sh*t superhero movie Affleck helmed in 2003, but he passed on it because he didn’t know the director’s work. He said “the movie ended up doing very well, even though I don’t think Ben was ultimately very proud of it.” Is that shade? I think I sense a tinge of it.
Bonus Chiwetel. He better get some decent screen time in The Martian.
Photo credit: WENN.com
Matt is shady of Ben, its been going on for years. I have no horse in this race so I just shrug and move along.
As for “context”, in what context would it be ok to say that diversity is addressed in the actors rather than in the power players? And perhaps he didn’t push for an edit because he didn’t think it would be a flashpoint. He clearly believed the nonsense he spewed on the show, he must’ve thought it was a reasonable position to take – thats why the scene aired.
+1 to everything. Matt and Ben seem to act like frenemies (though more Matt shading on Ben) sometimes, lol.
It was taken out of context because in the end they were left with 19 out of 20 white men/women. The producer was pushing for the Asian male/ women team strictly to address the diversity issue. Matts assertion was we’ll have to address that in the casting. If you saw the whole episode (while taking the limitations of the candidates into account) it was a reasonable if inartful suggestion.
But it’s ok because everyone likes Matt Damon. Don’t you see how that works?
That wasn’t shade towards Ben. Ben has talked about how upset he was with the way Daredevil turned out. And the blame in articles regarding the movie really wasn’t on Ben. A lot of It was on really the director, a very poor choice of director. And the action scenes were horrible, on and on. It was originally intended to be darker also.
“The only movie I actually regret is Daredevil. It just kills me. I love that story, that character, and the fact that it got fucked up the way it did stays with me. Maybe that’s part of the motivation to do Batman.”
Yep, exactly, there’s no shading here. Yet whenever Matt mentions his BFF Ben now, people are always parsing his words and looking for something less-than…
Funny how it doesn’t often go the other way around, with Ben vs Matt. Anywho, they’re imperfect people, so why should their friendship be forever perfect?
Agree with both of you. The Matty Love Brigade seems to have trouble accepting that Damon would still be close to *Evil Affleck*.
Jayna, I think this is why Ben writes, directs and acts in his own movies because then he has almost total control over the final product.
Earlier in his career, he worked with as many good directors as bad ones, and that didn’t mean the movies were good or did well. Yet Ben still took the blame for all of them, even the blockbusters. You don’t ever hear of anyone else involved in those pictures doing that, not even the directors themselves. So I think now helming his own movies, he assumes full responsibility for them, also takes care of his actors and crew, and it’s clear that they and the studios like working with him, too.
Since Argo, I’ve heard it asked, why does Ben always cast himself in his own movies? Well, he’s pretty much proven that he can do all of those things and do them very well, thank you, so why the heck not?
(After all this is what Clooney, Beatty and Eastwood have done, and if memory serves me right, no one ever questioned their abilities or egos in doing it.)
Anyway, enough of my superfan defense of Ben, and back to Matty D. I think he “gets it”, but he also knows that everything celebs say or do is ripe for criticism and controversy. It’s especially true now with media, social and otherwise, everywhere all at once. When I think of some of the things I’ve posted online, I stand by most of what I’ve written, but there are probably a few things I’d take back if I could. Can you imagine being questioned on everything you’ve ever said or written publicly? Ugh, I couldn’t deal.
As for asking Chiwetel his thoughts on the matter, he’s not involved with PG, and he wasn’t there when the comments were made. So why should he have to answer, because he’s the only POC standing next to Matt at The Martian premiere? That really smacks as racism on the part of the media to me.
Clooney, Beatty and Eastwood are good actors, they can actually EMOTE unlike Ben who can’t move his facial expression to convey anything but blank face. Ben is ALWAYS the weakest link in his films. Other directors know their limitations, they know the suck so most they do is nothing or cameos. Ben’s ego won’t let him get out of the way for his film’s sake. Even to the point of playing a Latino in Argo.
Ben hiring himself is another reason why Damo’s getting on his high horse about hiring “the best” is laughable. They don’t hire the best, the hire themselves and their buddies.
Well, we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one, Original T.C…
Beatty’s good because he came up in the Golden Age of 70s filmmaking, but he’s notoriously difficult as a director, demanding more unnecessary and over-budget takes than anyone.
Eastwood’s acting is debatable because he’s only ever played an angry white man, and now “angry old white man” (his lines “do you feel lucky” and “get off my lawn” sounding pretty much the same to me), and in the opposite way, he doesn’t direct enough (bad accents and that fake baby!)
Clooney’s like Affleck in that he’s perhaps better as a director than an actor, I won’t argue with you there, but except for Syriana in which he was excellent, he always seems to play his charming, handsome self.
So it’s interesting that you bring up the role of Mendez in Argo as a point of argument because his identity as Latino had not much to do with being in the CIA, and in fact, he was born in Nevada to parents of Mexican, Italian, French and Irish ethnicity, also never learned to speak Spanish.
And ironically enough, Clooney as producer and as non-Latino as Affleck, actually wanted the role of Mendez for himself.
“Lord grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man.”
Exactly.
He is a serviceable actor with very average looks.
I think he’s turned in some very strong performances.
Bwahahahah Look at you with My Every Morning Prayer!! i fervently wish I walked around with The cojones to act like im the world most eminent authority on EVERYTHING
Never change QQ. A breath of fresh air, you are.
Damon knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s stirring up publicity for a show that a lot of people weren’t even aware was back on. That doesn’t excuse the comments, but I think it explains the editing of the show and why that wasn’t cut.
Saw Chiwetel at the theatre in Everyman here in London and he was…AMAZING. Like, just fantastic. He needs to be in more stuff!
What’s with “says some words?” I see that in many articles. Is it just lazy phrasing or is it some type of shade?
I know, I’m always tempted to write “I love it when people say words!”
It’s just a bit of a riff. Started here with the ‘Kit Harrington says words’ article.
Well, that’s good he seems to get it a little more, but let’s see how it goes in the future – actions speak louder than words. If they do another season of the show, they will need to recruit filmmakers from all different backgrounds and perspectives.
Based on the character he’s playing and the book, Chiwetel should get plenty of screen time.
Yeah, we’ll see, though I’m still not sure I buy the reasoning for “merit” as to why they selected the whitest and least talented one as the winner…
Since I don’t have HBO, I can only watch what’s on the PG website, but I did see all 13 of the finalist entries and bio films. And I have to say, Jason was the most pretentious and unfunny, also nowhere near as technically skilled as the others, but what do I know.
Anyway, I don’t have high expectations for the resulting film, and the whole process of making it seems to be more about presenting dramatic “Reality” TV.