Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel’s “feud” rages on.
On Tuesday, Kimmel had Ben Affleck as a guest on his late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! in light of his upcoming movie Air, which is directed by Affleck and stars both him and Damon.
Starting their conversation about Affleck’s upcoming biopic, Kimmel praised the “great people from the cast”, which included Viola Davis, Chris Tucker, Chris Messina, Jason Bateman, and more. But he purposefully omitted Ben’s longtime friend and frequent Hollywood colleague, Matt Damon.
At the end of his list, Ben noted that he was “leaving someone out” and mentioned Damon playing the lead role as Sonny Vaccaro in the film.
“No, I said all the best – all the great people from the film,” Kimmel jokingly responded.
Affleck did what he could to defend his fellow Cambridge, MA native.
“I understand you have your feuds,” Ben said, “ [but] Matt is a friend of mine.”
“I know, you guys are friends,” Kimmel replied, “I don’t understand it.”
“Fair enough,” Ben stated. “Honest to god, it would mean a lot to me if you would just, like, ask him one question about the movie, you know? He worked really hard on it. I tell you what, I can get him on the phone right now.”
The audience cheered and Kimmel reluctantly agreed to the phone call, reemphasizing that he would only ask one question to his alleged sworn enemy.
Damon answered the call (in Zoom form) and was projected onto a screen behind Ben and Jimmy.
“Hey, guys! What’s up everybody!” Matt shouted, flailing his arms up in excitement. “I’m on the show! Yes! […] Zoom-style, on the show! Very much on the show. Definitely on the show,” he continued to joke as it would soon prove to be a pre-recorded zoom call.
Damon and Kimmel’s “feud” roots in an ongoing joke that Kimmel has about running out of time at the end of his shows before being able to have Matt on stage as a guest.
On Monday, Damon shouted across the red carpet to Kimmel and his wife at the premiere for Air, and said, “Hey! I’d love to take a picture with you but we ran out of time!” before talking with ET and calling Jimmy a “terrible human being” and a “demonstrably bad man”.
Back to Tuesday’s episode, Kimmel asked Damon how it compares to portray a real-life person in movies versus a fictional character. Just as he is getting into his acting philosophy on the subject, his picture begins to rupture and freeze on frames of his face making comically unpleasant expressions.
Jimmy jokes that the wifi must be acting up as Damon continues to attempt to talk through the technical difficulties. By the time he comes back to frame as he’s supposed to be, various filters begin to cover his head, including a lion’s mane and a mohawk.
“I am so sick and tired of dealing with your bulls–t!” Matt exclaims in fake anger, before concluding, “Why don’t you take your one question and your show and shove it up your big, hairy a–!” as the video call ends.
“I apologize for the profanity, he is out of control,” Kimmel said to his audience. “I can’t believe you hang out with that person.”
“I’m really disappointed in him,” Affleck replied.
Despite his best efforts, Ben couldn’t squash the beef between Jimmy and Matt and it’s hard to tell if anyone ever will. It’s a shame, the two seem like they could be great friends with one another. But alas, the rivalry continues.
Air hits theaters on April 5.
Sources:
https://people.com/movies/ben-affleck-acts-as-peacemaker-in-matt-damons-ongoing-feud-with-jimmy-kimmel/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arWZf7_ktBs
