SO, WHAT CHANGED?
Matt used to escape controversy, while Ben was the punchline, writes
From the Weekend Update desk on Saturday Night Live in 2004, co-anchor Amy Poehler said Matt Damon had criticized Hollywood actors who want roles only in big blockbuster movies. “Here with a response to those statements: A Hollywood actor.”
The camera panned to guest host Ben Affleck, also known as Damon's longtime best friend.
“Yeah, Matt. Um, look, bro — we all know who you're talking about, OK?” he said. “It's been kind of a mainstream year. Halfway through watching Paycheck, I went and asked the theatre manager for my money back, and then I remembered I was in it.”
“I know you're not into stardom,” Affleck continued. “But help me out — I can't seem to recall which Chekhov play The Bourne Supremacy was based on.”
Affleck went on roasting Damon about the upcoming Ocean's Twelve (“Ocean's Eleven left so many unanswered questions!”), and his own persona (“By the way, Mr. Street Cred, How's Clooney's yacht?”).
The segment captured the public perception of the childhood pals from Boston who won the Academy Award for original screenplay for 1997's Good Will Hunting. On separate stardom trajectories, Affleck became the boisterous, attention-loving blockbuster actor. Damon was the more low-key, Harvard-educated Oscar nominee who could seamlessly go from bespoke Oscar bait (The Talented Mr. Ripley), to action hero while staying out of the paparazzi's lens.
Now, their roles have reversed in middle age: Affleck draws public empathy by speaking candidly about his personal demons, including his divorce and a trip to rehab in 2018 for his alcohol addiction. He's still a paparazzi magnet, and caused social media to explode this summer with a nostalgia-filled reunion with Jennifer Lopez.
Damon has an unfortunate knack for summoning internet anger, frequently, over cultural issues. He got into it again this week after telling the Sunday Times about a joke he cracked at home that resulted in one of his daughters writing a “treatise” to her 50-year-old father on why the “f-slur for a homosexual” is dangerous. In a later statement, Damon said he's never used the slur. He was trying to teach his daughter about the history of the word. “I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.”
How did Affleck — the supposed bad boy in this pair — become at 48 the self-aware celebrity who brings joy to the masses, while Damon, with his sterling reputation, keeps making missteps? It could be because narratives and images of celebrities are never actually what they seem.
“The way they were presented back then ... the knives were sharper for Ben, because they're always sharper for the person who seems thirstier,” said Elaine Lui, the etalk and The Social TV personality who runs the website Laineygossip.com. Affleck, she notes, has always pushed back against the idea that he seeks attention. “In our minds, we have a default trigger where we always think the quiet introverted one is, for lack of a better word, culturally and morally the `better' one ... But we all know that's not true.”
After generating headlines for dating Minnie Driver and Winona Ryder, Damon learned to keep his private life private. He has been married to Luciana Barroso since 2005, and they live relatively quietly with their daughters. “If people can see 16 pictures of you drinking coffee or walking your dog, I think it dilutes the desire to see you in a movie,” Damon told The New York Times Magazine.
But being so guarded means no one feels as if they really know you, which works until you put your foot in your mouth.
Damon's first controversy erupted in 2015 during the season 4 première of HBO'S Project Greenlight, the reality show he co-produced with Affleck, where they awarded an amateur filmmaker the opportunity to make a movie. During a conversation with the selection committee, Damon repeatedly interrupted producer Effie Brown, the only Black filmmaker in the room, as she raised her concerns about the potential director, telling her, “When we're talking about diversity, you do it in the casting of the film, not in the casting of the show.” Social media went wild over Damon explaining diversity to a Black woman. He ultimately issued an apology.
Later that year, the term “Damonsplaining” took off after he told The Guardian that actors shouldn't disclose their sexuality, so they can remain a mystery. He brought up Rupert Everett as an example, and many interpreted this as him saying gay actors should stay in the closet — though he later denied that's what he meant.
When sexual assault allegations emerged in 2017 against Harvey Weinstein, both men came under fire for their close association with him in their careers. Damon vowed to “close my mouth for a while” after seeing enormous criticism for saying there was a “spectrum” of sexual misconduct and said we “live in a culture of outrage and injury.”
“Like everybody, I'm a prisoner of my subjective experience and that leads to having blind spots. Me more than most given the experience that I've had as a white male American movie star. It's a very rarefied air,” Damon told Marchese. “I don't even know where my blind spots begin and end. So, yes, I am and was tone-deaf. I do try my best not to be.”
Affleck has opened up about going to Alcoholics Anonymous and his 2018 rehab stint, and told The New York Times his 2018 divorce from Garner is his biggest regret. Where Damon's apologies can seem stiff and pro forma, Affleck's remorse can be genuinely moving.
“America loves a redemption story. And no matter what mistakes someone has made, the public reaction to them often depends on how they handle their mistakes,” said Leslie Bennetts, an author and journalist who wrote a Vanity Fair cover story about Affleck in 2003.
“If a guy comes out and says, `I did (blank), I screwed up, I'm really sorry, I won't do it again' — people tend to root for them.”
I don't even know where my blind spots begin and end. So, yes, I am and was tone-deaf. I do try my best not to be.
ACTOR MATT DAMON