Matt Damon is going viral after a video of him defending teachers at a 2011 rally resurfaced online.
The actor held his own against a reporter who suggested that teachers would work harder with less job security, with Matt being praised for his incredibly articulate response when put on the spot.
The moment happened at the Save Our Schools march in Washington, DC over 10 years ago, with thousands of people uniting to protest the Obama administration's education policies that focused on standardized tests.
Matt was filming Elysium in Vancouver at the time but flew over especially to attend the march with his mom, who is a teacher.
He delivered an impassioned speech to the crowd during the protest, saying: "I honestly don't know where I'd be today if that was the type of education I had. I sure as hell wouldn't be here. I do know that."
"I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself; my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity, all come from how I was parented and taught," Matt went on.
He added: "And none of these qualities that I've just mentioned, none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success... None of these qualities that make me who I am can be tested."
Afterwards, Matt was approached by a reporter for reason.tv, who argued that the job security that comes with teachers making tenure could be a bad thing.
In case you didn't know, tenure is an indefinite academic appointment that offers teachers a permanent role that will only be terminated under extraordinary circumstances.
Making her case, the reporter compared teaching to acting and said: "There isn't job security, right? There's an incentive to work hard and be a better actor because you want to have a job, so why isn't it like that for teachers?"
Visibly unimpressed with the question, Matt asked in response: "So you think job insecurity is what makes me work hard?"
"Well, you have an incentive to work harder," the reporter replied, before Matt interrupted by shaking his head and saying: "I want to be an actor. That's not an incentive, that's the thing."
"See, you take this MBA-style thinking, right? It's the problem with ed policy right now," Matt continued. "This intrinsically paternalistic view of problems that are much more complex than that. It's like saying a teacher is going to get lazy when they have tenure, a teacher wants to teach!"
"I mean, why else would you take a shitty salary and really long hours and do that job unless you really love to do it?" he concluded.
At this point, the man filming chimed in and claimed that "10% of teachers are bad," to which Matt's mom asked: "Where did you get that number?"
"I don't know, 10% of people in any profession maybe should think of something else," the cameraperson said.
"Well, OK," Matt responded. "But maybe you're a shitty cameraman, I don't know."
The moment is now circulating online after someone shared it to Twitter on Saturday and wrote: "Matt Damon actually fucking rules."
The clip quickly went viral, and has already racked up almost 30 million views on the social media site — with many left in awe by the seamless way that Matt defended passion as an incentive for hard work over job security.
"Matt Damon absolutely decimating these people who are suggesting job insecurity is important for incentivizing hard work as opposed to passion, all on behalf of his teacher mother is just really damn refreshing," one person wrote.
Matt Damon absolutely decimating these people who are suggesting job insecurity is important for incentivising hard work as opposed to passion, all on behalf of his teacher mother is just really damn refreshing. https://t.co/7r3amAQOBU
— Vaughn Joy • Support #WGAstrong (@gvaughnjoy) August 19, 2023
"Matt Damon nails it," another agreed. "Maybe his mom being a teacher provided that insight. And what he points out is a big part of what is so evil about how teachers are treated on both sides of Atlantic: the reason management thinks they can take away our salaries is because we love what we do."
Matt Damon nails it. Maybe his mom being a teacher provided that insight. And what he points out is a big part of what is so evil about how teachers are treated on both sides of Atlantic: the reason management thinks they can take away our salaries is because we love what we do🤬 https://t.co/8eyWtwWNHV
"There's a moment here when Matt Damon's mom realizes, oh no, I don't have to do a thing here because my boy's not gonna let this go down like this, and I love that for her," one more pointed out.
There's a moment here when Matt Damon's mom realizes, oh no, I don't have to do a thing here because my boy's not gonna let this go down like this, and I love that for her. https://t.co/daBMHrXmIj
And others couldn't help but draw comparisons between Matt and the character he played in his breakthrough movie, Good Will Hunting.
The film came out in 1997 and stars Matt as Will Hunting, a troubled janitor with a natural gift for complex mathematics and a surprising level of intellect that often catches his peers off guard.
Referencing one of the movie's most famous scenes, one person tweeted: "huge 'one-upping the guy at the bar in Good Will Hunting' vibes in this clip. king shit."
huge 'one-upping the guy at the bar in Good Will Hunting' vibes in this clip. king shit. https://t.co/KzfnDnONS4
Matt wrote Good Will Hunting with Ben Affleck, who he grew up with after their moms introduced them to each other as young kids.
Matt and Ben ended up bonding over their shared love of acting, and the two eventually moved in together and supported one another in their careers.
Earlier this year, the friends revealed that they even opened a shared bank account when they were teenagers so that if one of them earned money from a job, the other could use it to get to auditions.
“We were going to help each other and be there for each other,” Ben explained on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “It was like, ‘You’re not going to be alone. I’m not going to be alone. Let’s go out there and do this together.’”
"As long as one of us had money, we knew the power wasn’t going to get shut off,” Matt added. “After doing [1993's] Geronimo, I probably had 35 grand in the bank. I was like, we’re good for a year."
Of course, Good Will Hunting ended up being a huge success and catapulted both actors' careers, with Matt and Ben also winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for the film in 1998.
