
Heidi Gutman/ABC
UPDATE: Matt Damon's ex-girlfriend and Good Will Hunting co-star Minnie Driver and actress Alyssa Milano, who helped make the #MeToo movement popular, both shared their thoughts on the actor's latest comments.
"God God, SERIOUSLY?" Driver wrote on Twitter after quoting an article about Damon's latest interview. "Gosh it's so *interesting how men with all these opinions about women's differentiation between sexual misconduct, assault and rape reveal themselves to be utterly tone deaf and as a result, systemically part of the problem( *profoundly unsurprising)."
Milano wrote on Twitter, "Dear Matt Damon, It's the micro that makes the macro. We are in a 'culture of outrage' because the magnitude of rage is, in fact, overtly outrageous. And it is righteous. I have been a victim of each component of the sexual assault spectrum of which you speak. They all hurt. And they are all connected to a patriarchy intertwined with normalized, accepted—even welcomed—misogyny."
"We are not outraged because someone grabbed our asses in a picture," she continued. "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. 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."
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In Wednesday's episode of ABC News' Popcorn With Peter Travers, Matt Damon shared his views regarding the wave of sexual misconduct allegations in Hollywood—and in doing so, opened himself up to widespread criticism. As more people come forward to expose their abusers, the actor said, "I think we're in this watershed moment. I think it's great. I think it's wonderful that women are feeling empowered to tell their stories—and it's totally necessary."
That being said, Damon argued there is "a spectrum of behavior" to take into consideration. "You know, there's a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?" the Downsizing actor told Peter Travers. "Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn't be conflated, right?" In the case of Al Franken, for example, he would have "preferred if they had an Ethics Committee investigation." But, Damon argued, "We are so energized to kind of get retribution."
"We live in this culture of outrage and injury, and, you know, we're going to have to correct enough to kind of go, 'Wait a minute. None of us came here perfect.' You know what I mean?"
Damon then cited several disgraced public figures to make his point.