While most of Hollywood has offered nothing but support for the women who have been brave enough in recent months to come forward with their stories of sexual assault and harassment in the entertainment industry Matt Damon instead took the opportunity to make some, um, interesting comments about the current conversation surrounding sexual assault — and naturally, people were less than thrilled.
However, the actor has *finally* issued an apology for those comments (albeit, nearly a month later). During his appearance on the Today show on Tuesday, Damon took the opportunity to go back on his controversial statement in which he said we should be talking more about men that don’t assault women.
“I really wish I’d listened a lot more before I weighed in on this,” Damon said on the show. “I don’t want to further anybody’s pain with anything that I do or say. So for that I am really sorry.”
“A lot of those women are my dear friends and I love them and respect them and support what they’re doing and want to be a part of that change … But I should get in the back seat and close my mouth for a while.”
Matt Damon on the #TimesUp movement. pic.twitter.com/jNjiIjuhVl
— Kathie Lee and Hoda (@klgandhoda) January 16, 2018
The actor went on to add that seeing many of his female friends speak out as part of #MeToo and the “Time’s Up” movement has given him perspective.
“A lot of those women are my dear friends and I love them and respect them and support what they’re doing and want to be a part of that change. But I should get in the back seat and close my mouth for a while.”
ICYMI, back in December, the actor told Business Insider, “We’re in this watershed moment, and it’s great, but I think one thing that’s not being talked about is there are a whole sh*tload of guys — the preponderance of men I’ve worked with — who don’t do this kind of thing and whose lives aren’t going to be affected.” His comments didn’t go unnoticed, and it didn’t take long for the Internet to respond by asking why the heck we need to be applauding men for acting like, you know, decent human beings.
While his apology doesn’t excuse his previous comments (which, let’s be honest, were *unreal* levels of out of touch), we applaud Damon for owning up to the fact that he spoke out about the #MeToo movement without taking the time to fully understand why it’s so important — which is something a lot more men need to be doing right now.