Matt Damon interrupts black woman filmmaker to explain diversity
Matt Damon might have had good intentions, but he sparked outrage after he interrupted a successful, black woman filmmaker to invalidate her point about diversity in filmmaking on his show "Project Greenlight" on HBO.
Damon was talking to Effie Brown, one of the producers behind "Dear White People," about one of the films when Brown raised concerns that the only black person in the script was a prostitute who gets slapped by her white pimp, reports Vox.
"I just would want to urge people to think about, whoever this director is, the way they're going to treat the character of Harmony. Her being a prostitute, the only black person being a hooker who gets hit by her white pimp -- " started Brown.
Damon interrupted her and said that the less diverse potential teams brought up the same issue, and Brown tried to pick up her point again -- "Not necessarily true" -- but Damon continued to talk over her and say that the diverse team may not end up making the film with the sensitivity Brown expects.
Then, Damon told Brown it wasn't important to have a diverse team behind the scenes.
"When we're talking about diversity you do it in the casting of the film not in the casting of the show," he explained, suggesting that it is more important to cast diverse actors than diverse producers or directors.
Brown responded to the controversy on Twitter and retweeted a GIF of herself that was captioned, "When you realize even the most liberal white dudes in Hollywood will mansplain representation to you."
Later, Brown tweeted, "Ooof! Wow! Okay. Thank you for watching the show and getting a great conversation started. I can't wait to hear you on the other episodes!"
