Matt Damon has admitted that he knew Harvey Weinstein was “an a**hole” – but insisted that he never knew the extent of his actions.
Back in 1997, the famed actor landed his big break in Oscar-winning drama Good Will Hunting, which was produced by Harvey and his former production company, Miramax – and he went on to star in a number of Miramax productions over the years.
Speaking about his experience with Harvey Weinstein on Good Morning America, Matt said, “I was there at the height of his power. You only had to spend five minutes with Harvey Weinstein to know he was a bully; he was intimidating.”
“That was his legend; that was his whole MO (method of operation): Could you survive a meeting with Harvey? Could you stand up for yourself with Harvey…?”
“When people say ‘everybody knew (about the sex allegations)’ – yeah, I knew he was an a**hole. He was proud of that… That’s how he carried himself.
“And I knew he was a womaniser. I wouldn’t want to be married to the guy, but like, that’s not my business, really, but this level of criminal sexual predation is not something I ever thought was going on, absolutely not.”
However, Matt admitted that he knew about Gwyneth Paltrow’s terrifying experience with Harvey in a hotel room when she was just 22, which she recently detailed in a New York Times article.
“I knew the story of Gwyneth, from Ben, ’cause he was with her after Brad (Pitt)… but I was working with Gwyneth with Harvey on Ripley. I never talked to Gwyneth about it… but I knew that they had come to whatever agreement or understanding that they had come to. She had handled it, and she was the First Lady of Miramax and he (Weinstein) treated her incredibly respectfully. Always.”
Close pal and colleague George Clooney joined Matt for the GMA interview, and revealed that Harvey always boasted about famous women he had had affairs with, but George always assumed that he was lying.
“To believe would be to believe the worst of some actresses who were friends of mine, and I didn’t really think that they were gonna have affairs with Harvey, quite honestly, and clearly they didn’t,” he said.
George also said that he was infuriated by the allegations, and ensured that Harvey and others like him will get their “comeuppance”.
As of now, over 40 women have come forward with stories about Harvey Weinstein, since the disgraced producer was exposed in a New York Times article.
