Matt Damon, Ben Affleck Studio Disavows Trump Indictment Video Using Damon’s ‘Air’ Monologue: We Did Not Consent and Do Not Approve
Production company and studio Artists Equity, founded and co-owned by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, have disavowed a web video shared on ex-president Donald Trump‘s Truth Social account that features an unauthorized use of a monologue from the Affleck-directed historical sports drama Air.
The film is a biographical drama about the origin of Nike’s Air Jordan shoes, which stars Damian Delano Young as NBA legend Michael Jordan and Matt Damon as Nike talent scout Sonny Vaccaro.
After the historic, 37-count indictment on charges related to classified documents and violations of The Espionage Act, Trump shared a video with dramatized scenes of his life and presidency as an inspirational Damon monologue from the film plays as the narration.
Along with the video, Trump included a link to donate to the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee.
The video was pointed out on Twitter by Axios reporter Alex Thompson on Saturday. Thompson also tagged Amazon Studios and Artist’s Equity, and reached out for comment.
Trump is now cutting web videos w/ Matt Damon’s Air monologue as narration… pic.twitter.com/cBMBOaUr0Q
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 10, 2023
Cc @AmazonStudios @artists_equity
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 10, 2023
The company responded, saying:
We had no foreknowledge of, did not consent to and do not endorse or approve any footage or audio from Air being repurposed by the Trump campaign as a political advertisement. Specifically in terms of any and all rights available to us under US copyright and intellectual property law, we hereby, expressly give notice that in the case of any use of material from Air by the Trump campaign where approval or consent is required, we do not grant such consent.
Thompson also received a reply from a Trump campaign spox.
I sent Artist Equity’s statement to a Trump campaign spokesperson.
This was their response: pic.twitter.com/22cYQ5rwRH— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 10, 2023
Both Damon and Affleck are active in the Democratic party. The website for Artists Equity describes the company as “an artist-led, independently capitalized studio co-founded by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital, that partners with filmmakers to empower their creative vision and broaden access to creator and crew profit participation.”
Read more from Axios here.
