George Clooney, Matt Damon Denounce ‘A–hole’ Harvey Weinstein: ‘It’s Beyond Infuriating’ (Video)

To believe movie mogul’s stories of affairs “would be to believe kind of the worst of some actresses who were friends of mine,” says Clooney

Matt Damon said that while he knew Harvey Weinstein was an “a–hole” and a “womanizer,” he didn’t know the extent of his “criminal sexual predation.” Damon sat down with his “Suburbicon” co-star George Clooney — who also spoke out about the disgraced movie mogul — in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” that aired Monday.

“You had to spend five minutes with him to know he was a bully, he was intimidating. That was his legend. That was his whole M.O. Could you survive a meeting with Harvey? Could you stand up for yourself with Harvey?” Damon told Michael Strahan. Both he and Clooney have worked extensively with Weinstein over the years.

“When people say everybody knew, yeah, I knew he was an a–hole. He was proud of that. That’s how he carried himself,” Damon continued. “I knew he was a womanizer. I wouldn’t want to be married to the guy, but that’s not my business, really. But this level of criminal sexual predation is not something that I ever thought was going on. Absolutely not.”

Clooney said Weinstein would share stories of his affairs but, said the actor, “to believe him would be to believe kind of the worst of some actresses who were friends of mine. I didn’t really think that they were going have affairs with Harvey, quite honestly. And clearly, they didn’t.”

Damon said that Weinstein didn’t parade his misconduct out in the open, but if it did happen at an event and he “missed it,” then he is sorry.

“If there was ever an event or something that I was at, in public with Harvey, and he was doing this kind of thing and I missed it? And there’s some woman who was somehow assaulted, and it was at the Golden Globes, and I somehow missed it? Then I’m sorry,” said Damon.

Damon also said he knew about an alleged incident in which Weinstein sexually harassed Gwyneth Paltrow. “I knew the story about Gwyneth from Ben [Affleck] because he was with her after Brad [Pitt] and so I knew that story,” said the “Saving Private Ryan” actor.

“But I was working with Gwyneth and with Harvey on [the 1999 film ‘The Talented Mr.] Ripley’]… I never talked to Gwyneth about it but Ben told me that whatever or agreement they had come to there was an understanding … and he treated her incredibly respectfully. Always.”

Clooney added that there “has to be a comeuppance for all of this, all of the people that were part of that chain.”

“We have to make it safe for people to feel they can talk about this, and in doing that, I think that will scare away that kind of behavior,” Clooney said. He added that women face sexual harassment in every industry. “Many, if not most women, have at some point in their life faced this kind of behavior.”

Watch the full interview above.

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