Minnie Driver Slams Ex-Boyfriend Matt Damon For Sexual Harassment Comments
The Speechless star is not here for her former flame's recent statements.
Following Matt Damon's controversial ABC News interview, actress Minnie Driver spoke with The Guardian to explain why her ex-boyfriend was wrong in his opinion, telling the paper that men, for the most part, just don't understand the issue of sexual harassment.
"I felt I desperately needed to say something. I've realised that most men, good men, the men that I love, there is a cut-off in their ability to understand," she stated. "They simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level."
Driver, who co-starred with Damon in Good Will Hunting and dated the actor in 1998 (via Yahoo! Entertainment), continued, "I honestly think that until we get on the same page, you can't tell a woman about their abuse. A man cannot do that. No one can. It is so individual and so personal, it's galling when a powerful man steps up and starts dictating the terms, whether he intends it or not."
As Nicki Swift previously reported, Damon visited Popcorn With Peter Travers on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. During his interview, Damon commented on the ongoing sexual misconduct scandals that have rocked Hollywood since producer Harvey Weinstein was first outed in multiple exposés.
"You know, there's a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?" Damon said. "Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn't be conflated, right?"
Touching upon the various individual scandals in the entertainment industry, Damon singled out Louis C.K., who's admitted to masturbating in front of female colleagues. "When he came out and said, 'I did this; I did these things; these women are all telling the truth,' I just remember thinking, 'Well, that's the sign of somebody who...well, we can work with that,'" Damon told host Peter Travers (via E! News).
Noting that it could send a bad message to the youth to completely condemn men who've confessed, Damon continued, "We can talk about rehabilitation and everything else. That's criminal behavior and it needs to be dealt with that way. The other stuff is just kind of shameful and gross...I don't know Louis C.K.; I've never met him. I'm a fan of his, but I don't imagine he's going to do those things again. You know what I mean?"
Regarding Damon's statements on C.K., Driver told The Guardian, "That's a problem," adding, "If good men like Matt Damon are thinking like that then we're in a lot of f**king trouble. We need good intelligent men to say this is all bad across the board, condemn it all and start again."
She explained, "There is no hierarchy of abuse – that if a woman is raped [it] is much worse than if woman has a penis exposed to her that she didn't want or ask for ... you cannot tell those women that one is supposed to feel worse than the other."
"And it certainly can't be prescribed by a man. The idea of tone deafness is the idea there [is] no equivalency," Driver continued. "How about: it's all f***ing wrong and it's all bad, and until you start seeing it under one umbrella it's not your job to compartmentalise or judge what is worse and what is not. Let women do the speaking up right now. The time right now is for men just to listen and not have an opinion about it for once."
Driver's not the only star to find fault with Damon's recent interview. Alyssa Milano also spoke out against the popular actor. On Twitter, she wrote, "We are not outraged because someone grabbed our a**es in a picture. We are outraged because we were made to feel this was normal. We are outraged because we have been gaslighted. We are outraged because we were silenced for so long."
"There are different stages of cancer. Some more treatable than others. But it's still cancer," added. "Sexual harassment, misconduct, assault and violence is a systemic disease. The tumor is being cut out right now with no anesthesia. Please send flowers. #MeToo."
While we wait to see if Damon responds to backlash from his interview, read about all the men who've been accused of sexual misconduct since the Weinstein scandal first broke.