Matt Damon Criticizes Netflix for Repeating Movie Plots to Cater to Distracted Viewers
Actor Matt Damon revealed that Netflix often asks filmmakers to repeat key plot points “three or four times” within scenes to accommodate viewers watching on their phones.
Damon and his longtime friend Ben Affleck appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience on Friday to promote their new Netflix film, “The Rip,” which premiered the same day.
During the conversation, Damon noted that audiences have a “very different level of attention” when watching movies at home on Netflix compared to in theaters. He added that the streaming platform is now altering the filmmaking process to suit these distracted viewers.
“The standard way to make an action movie that we learned was, you usually have three set pieces—one in the first act, one in the second, one in the third. You spend most of your money on that one in the third act, that’s your finale. And now they’re like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching,’” Damon said.
He warned that this approach could start to affect how stories are told in films.
Affleck pointed out that the Netflix crime drama series “Adolescence” succeeded without these adjustments, though Damon called it an “exception” rather than the rule.
“Matt Damon and longtime friend Ben Affleck appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience Friday to promote their new Netflix film, The Rip, which premiered the same day.”
Damon said that Netflix has started altering the filmmaking process to cater to distracted viewers.
“My feeling is just that it shows you don’t need to do any of that to engage people, you know what I mean?” Affleck responded.
He also downplayed concerns about streaming services threatening traditional filmmaking, stressing that streaming is not an “existential threat” to the movie theater experience.
“It’s like supply and demand. People want to look at their phones—they can scroll through TikTok. What you can do is make your work the best it can be. Make it really good, and people will still go to the movies,” Affleck added.
Fox News Digital reached out to Netflix for comment.
Affleck noted that the Netflix crime drama series “Adolescence” succeeded without making these types of adjustments, though Damon called it the “exception” rather than the rule.
During the podcast, both Damon and Affleck also criticized cancel culture, saying it has been taken to an extreme.
“I bet some of those people would have preferred to go to jail for 18 months or whatever and then come out and say, ‘No, but I paid my debt. Like, we’re done. Can we be done?’” Damon said. “Getting publicly excoriated like that—it just never ends.”
Affleck added, “To take any forgiveness out of it is really f–ed up, because it makes it impossible to actually say, ‘All right, yeah, I did that… that was wrong. I get it.’ Once you’ve admitted it, you become an outcast.”
