Update: Jessica Chastain sent a followup tweet after Matt Damon explained his side of the story in an interview with Deadline.
"I believe that Matt was manipulated. I've spent time with him on The Martian and he's a really good guy," Chastain tweeted.
This story was originally published on October 9, 2017.
Jessica Chastain is adding her voice to the women of Hollywood who are shocked, outraged, and disappointed about the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment allegations. So far, Meryl Streep, Rose McGowan, Lena Dunham, Judi Dench, and more have all spoken up to condemn the disgraced movie mogul.
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The fiercely feminist actress first tweeted her support of Weinstein's abuse victims this morning, writing that "Yes. Im [sic] sick of the media demanding only women speak up. What about the men? Perhaps many are afraid to look at their own behavior....." She's right. Complicit men are often part of an infrastructure that keeps abusers in power. And unfortunately, her The Martian co-star Matt Damon is one of them.
She tweeted again, saying "This is heart shattering," and linking to a piece by Vulture. The story details how Matt Damon and Russell Crowe both allegedly worked to kill a New York Times story that would have exposed Harvey Weinstein over a decade ago, in 2004. The Times broke the initial allegations last week.
Vulture goes on to describe how journalist Sharon Waxman traveled around the world to investigate the story. She followed Fabrizio Lombardo, who was then the Italian head of Miramax, which was Weinstein's distribution company. Lombardo allegedly was hired to "to take care of Weinstein’s women needs," and yes, we're cringing too. "I had people on the record telling me Lombardo knew nothing about film, and others citing evenings he organized with Russian escorts," says Waxman.
She also describes how Damon and Crowe made calls to help stop the story from being published. "Waxman alleges in the Wrap that Matt Damon and Russell Crowe called her “directly” to dispel the report," writes Vulture. If this is true, and we have no reason to believe the reporting is faulty, this is a terrible act on the part of these two actors. By not allowing Weinstein to be exposed sooner, they endangered more women. Their reported lack of integrity exposed a known sexual predator to even more victims because he would face no consequences.
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We're with Chastain here. This is shattering and sickening. We expect that more awful stories are only going to be told in the days to come.
Yes. Im sick of the media demanding only women speak up. What about the men? Perhaps many are afraid to look at their own behavior..... https://t.co/tGUsjUYNMR
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) October 9, 2017
This is heart shattering https://t.co/xqgrH5Smgp
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) October 9, 2017
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