Matt Damon’s latest interview tackles THAT Project Greenlight argument.
Matt Damon is working hard to win an Oscar in the extremely popular movie The Martian. As part of the marketing strategy to win the Academy Award for best actor, he sat down with the New York Times to discuss that infamous exchange with producer Effie Brown on an episode of Project Greenlight.
During the Project Greenlight episode, Matt Damon argued with Effie Brown about diversity in Hollywood basically saying, the best diversity is in front of the camera, not behind it.
Well, to clarify things Matt Damon immediately started blaming everyone but himself. He explains to the reporters that after three previous seasons of Project Greenlight were dominated by white men, the show tried to improve diversity. But, Damon acknowledges producers didn’t do a very good job. “By the time we arrived to do our judging, we knew we had blown it, so Ben and I were already frustrated and upset about that,” he said. “So when Effie brought it up, it was like, yes, O.K., we got it.”
Matt Damon continues to go on by saying that he loves diversity in Hollywood and what was shown on camera is not how he really feels. “The idea that I would say that there didn’t need to be diversity behind the camera, it’s not only complete anathema to what I believe in my heart and always have,” Mr. Damon said, “but it’s not something that I think anybody would ever say with a camera on.”
Matt Damon goes on by saying what really happened in that heated discussion with Effie Brown. “And so when Effie was advocating for the woman and the Vietnamese-American guy, what I actually said was, ‘Are we judging a contest or are we casting a reality show?’” he continued. “And that’s when she said, ‘Wow.’ And I went, no, Effie, I’m completely serious, what is our responsibility at this point? Because we had already blown it on the competition.”
I wonder if he means that he made a mistake or if his words were edited in an unattractive way. If it’s the latter, then it seems pretty odd considering that he’s a producer on the show and an A-list actor, who could have easily had this fixed to save his acting career. What probably happened is that Matt Damon didn’t realize how offensive his comments really were.
Matt Damon would later call Effie Brown an “awesome producer,” so there’s water under the bridge.
As the Times points out, the movies made on Project Greenlight are never really the focus of the show, and they end up being pretty bad anyways. Ultimately, the show is aimed at creating good television, by creating drama and putting unqualified people in front of a million dollar project.
But, the heated discussion between Matt Damon and Effie Brown will go down in TV history and point a bright light into the secret Hollywood industry were non-white actors struggle to find jobs, acting opportunities, and connections due to the color of their skin. Because, as Matt Damon put it, “diversity belongs in front of the camera and not behind it.”
