Matt Damon Was the Wrong Choice for 'SNL's Kavanaugh Skit

From ELLE

It was unsurprising that SNL kicked off its 44th season with a skit about the Kavanaugh hearings. Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, the sexual assault charges leveled against him by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford (and several other women), and Thursday’s day of testimony has dominated the news cycle. But SNL’s choice to have Matt Damon spoof Kavanaugh is misguided at best, willfully problematic at worst.

Damon is a classic white hat Boston bro, a Harvard drop out, and based on those optics, a fine choice to take on Kavanaugh. But he’s got a terrible track record when it comes to supporting accused sexual abusers

Damon sparked outrage during an interview last year with ABC's Peter Travers where he offered insensitive comments on abuse. A longtime friend of the Affleck family, Damon weakly defended Casey Affleck during his long string of sexual harassment accusations. "If it's a friend of mine, I know the real story," he insisted. Affleck went on to win an Oscar during the height of his controversy.

He also threw some tepid support behind comedian Louis C.K. The comedian admitted to sexual misconduct last year, after he was accused by five women in a report by The New York Times. "I don’t know Louis C.K.," Damon added. "I’m a fan of his, but I don’t imagine he’s going to do those things again. You know what I mean? I imagine the price that he’s paid at this point is so beyond anything that he-I just think that we have to kind of start delineating between what these behaviors are.” C.K. recently returned to comedy.

And last but not least, is Damon’s attempt to diminish the magnitude of Harvey Weinstein’s crimes. (Weinstein produced Damon and Affleck’s star-making Good Will Hunting). Damon, who acknowledged Weinstein's monstrous 'nature' in the past, tried to reason a “spectrum” of sexual misconduct, while blaming our culture of “outrage and injury.” "There’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?" he told Travers."Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?"

Many prominent journalists and activists recognized the problems with Damon's SNL appearance and called it out on Twitter.

Since the hearings, jokes and memes have flooded the internet. This skit is just a capstone on a week of humorous 'content' that exists from a woman's pain and a man's privilege. So another question to ask: Is it really worth the cheap laugh? Definitely not with Matt Damon.

('You Might Also Like',)

• 10 Pairs of White Sneakers That Go With Everything

• 50 Surprising Things You Never Knew About 'Sex and the City'

• 20 Serums to Solve All Your Skincare Problems