Clooney and Damon knew Weinstein was an ‘a***ole’

George Clooney and Matt Damon continued to speak out against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who helped launch both actors to stardom in the late ‘90s, alleging they didn’t know the extent of Weinstein’s misconduct.

According to a report, the actors said they knew about the mogul’s alleged history of sexual harassment prior to the media firestorm that erupted earlier this month. “You had to spend about five minutes with him to know that he was a bully, he was intimidating — that was his legend,” Damon added. “When people say everybody knew, yeah I knew he was an a***ole. He was proud of that. That’s how he carried himself. And I knew he was a womanizer. I wouldn’t want to be married to the guy. But that’s not my business.”

The actor worked with Weinstein on ‘Good Will Hunting,’ the 1997 film that launched his career. However, he insisted he had not been aware of the “level of criminal sexual predation” and also acknowledges that he did hear about Gwyneth Paltrow’s experience from Ben Affleck but never had discussed directly with her.

“I never talked to Gwyneth about it. Ben told me, but I knew that they had come to whatever agreement or understanding that they had come to, she had handled it,” Damon said.

Paltrow was one of the first Hollywood actresses to come forward and accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment.

Clooney on a similar instance noted that he had an inkling of Weinstein’s alleged behaviour around women based on conversations he had with the mogul where the producer boasted to him about women with whom he claimed to have had affairs.

Clooney called it “beyond infuriating” that such a sexual predator had been “out there silencing women like that,” adding he now wants “to know all of it,” and there “has to be a comeuppance” so that women can feel safe, going forward, under similar circumstances.

George Clooney and Amal Clooney