George Clooney and Matt Damon knew Weinstein was an 'a**hole'

George Clooney and Matt Damon continued to speak out against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who helped launched both actors to stardom in the late '90s, alleging they didn't know the extent of Weinstein's misconduct.

According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, the actors who are at the press tour for Clooney-directed film 'Suburbicon' sat down for an interview with a news channel shedding light on what they knew about the mogul alleged history of sexual harassment prior to the media firestorm that erupted earlier this month.

"You had to spend about five minutes with him to know that he was a bully, he was intimidating - that was his legend," Damon added. "When people say everybody knew, yeah I knew he was an asshole. He was proud of that."

 

"That's how he carried himself. And I knew he was a womanizer. I wouldn't want to be married to the guy. But that's not my business," the 'Jason Bourne' star continued.

The actor worked with Weinstein on 'Good Will Hunting,' the 1997 film that launched his career.

However, 'The Martian' actor insisted he had not been aware of the "level of criminal sexual predation" and also acknowledges that he did hear about Gwyneth Paltrow's experience from Ben Affleck but never had discussed directly with her.

"I never talked to Gwyneth about it. Ben told me, but I knew that they had come to whatever agreement or understanding that they had come to, she had handled it," Damon said. "She was the first lady of Miramax. And he treated her incredibly respectfully."

Paltrow was one of the first Hollywood actresses to come forward and accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment.

Clooney on a similar instances noted that he had an inkling of Weinstein's alleged behaviour around women based on conversations he had with the mogul where the producer boasted to him about women with whom he claimed to have had affairs.

"I didn't necessarily believe him, quite honestly, because to believe would be to believe the worst of some actresses who were friends of mine," the 'Ocean's Eleven' star added.

Clooney called it "beyond infuriating" that such a sexual predator had been "out there silencing women like that," adding he now wants "to know all of it," and there "has to be a comeuppance" so that women can feel safe, going forward, under similar circumstances.

The 'Suburbicon' director said his wife Amal Clooney has also been subject to harassment in her line of work too, but said nonetheless it is surprising "to some of us that it's this big.