Matt Damon can survive car chases, stranded space missions and crooked cops on screen. What he apparently cannot escape is his 17-year-old daughter roasting his red carpet pose right in front of the cameras.
At the New York premiere of his new Netflix film “The Rip,” the 55-year-old Oscar winner found himself being gently dragged by daughter Gia, who turned an ordinary father-daughter moment into a viral family comedy bit.
Surrounded by his wife Luciana Barroso and their four daughters, with best friend Ben Affleck at his side, Damon was supposed to be the leading man. Instead, he became the punchline in the most relatable way possible.
‘The Rip’ Premiere Turned Into A Family Roast
Damon hit the carpet with Luciana and daughters Alexia, Isabella, Gia and Stella, posing for the standard line of photographers as he made his way over to greet his family between shots.
In video shared by Entertainment Tonight on X, cameras caught the moment Gia decided her dad’s stance needed some urgent workshopping. As he walked back toward his family, shoulders a little hunched and arms held slightly out, she did not hesitate.
She looked at him and immediately asked, “Why are you standing like this?” Then she physically demonstrated the problem, hunching forward and dramatically flaring her arms to mimic his posture, making her famous father look like an awkward school photo come to life.
Instead of brushing it off, Damon burst into laughter. He gamely copied her exaggerated impression of him, complete with the hunched shoulders, owning the joke as his daughters cracked up around him. For a few beats, the red carpet for “The Rip” stopped being about a gritty crime drama and became a family blooper reel.
Ben Affleck Saw It All And Still Calls Him “A Great Father”
Affleck, 53, was nearby for the chaos. The longtime friends walked the carpet together in coordinated tailored suits, posing for photos under what Affleck clearly knew was the true spotlight: Damon’s kids.
Speaking to Us Weekly on the carpet, Affleck could not resist bragging about his friend of decades. “I keep relearning things about Matt that I already knew and I forget them,” he said. “Honestly, I am continuously reminded of what a great father he is and what a fabulous actor he is.”
The “Argo” star added that sharing a career with Damon has felt like winning the lottery twice. “You are really lucky if you can do this for a living. And you are exceptionally lucky if you can do it with people you love and care about,” he said.
Their latest shared project, “The Rip,” only deepens that bond. Set in Miami, the film follows a group of cops who stumble upon a multi-million dollar cash haul, a discovery that sparks distrust and paranoia inside the squad. Affleck plays Detective Sergeant JD Byrne, while Damon stars as Lieutenant Dane Dumars in the tense Netflix cop drama.
The cast also includes Teyana Taylor, joining the film fresh off a Golden Globes win, a bit of Hollywood momentum that only adds to the sense that the Damon Affleck machine is very much in motion again.
The Wife Who Thought Ben Was “The Cute One”
For all the mutual admiration between the two men, one of the funniest parts of their modern era together is that Damon still loves telling the story of how his own wife originally picked Affleck in the “Good Will Hunting” crush wars.
Damon revealed the detail on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” while appearing with Affleck. Calling it “completely true,” he said, “After we had been together for a little while, probably a few months, she admitted that I think I met her best friend from high school, and it came out that the two of them went and saw “Good Will Hunting” together, and her best friend thought I was the cute one, and she thought Ben was the cute one.”
Luciana and Damon first met at a Miami bar while he was filming “Stuck On You.” They married a few years later, with Damon becoming stepfather to her daughter Alexia before the couple welcomed Isabella, Gia and Stella together. Somewhere early in that love story, the truth about her original reaction to the breakout movie that made them stars finally surfaced.
Damon admitted he had never sensed any lingering crush on Affleck. “She is a great producer and a really good friend, and yeah, I never got that vibe from her. So I think something I did in real life rubbed it off,” he joked. “Finally she met him and all that went away.”
Today, Luciana is not just a supporter on the sidelines. She is a producer on “The Rip” and on Affleck’s upcoming directorial project “Animals,” making the Damon Affleck Luciana triangle less about who was cutest in “Good Will Hunting” and more about who is best at getting a film made on time.
From “Good Will Hunting” Kids To Red Carpet Parents
Damon and Affleck have been telling versions of their origin story for years. Two Boston kids who wrote their way into Hollywood history with “Good Will Hunting,” turned the film into Oscars, then into decades of intertwined careers.
Looking back in their recent interview, Damon reflected on how early fame freezes a version of you in the public imagination. “Your evolution gets kind of stunted at the moment you become famous because the world treats you differently,” he said.
He added that the timing mattered. “I think we were lucky in that we were 25 and 27, so we had a handful of years under our belt where we would walk into a room and not turn any heads.” He and Affleck finished the thought together, bluntly adding, “And nobody gave a s**t.”
That no one cared era is long gone. Now, when Damon walks into a room, his posture alone becomes content. Yet in that Entertainment Tonight clip, there was a flash of the old anonymity, the sense of being seen not as an Oscar winner or Netflix lead but simply as a slightly awkward dad being lovingly heckled by his teenager.
The Most Relatable Thing About A Movie Star
On paper, the “The Rip” premiere in New York had all the trappings of classic Hollywood power. A major Netflix thriller. Two A list best friends in sharp suits. A Golden Globes winner in the ensemble. A producer spouse steering things behind the scenes.
And still, the moment everyone could not stop watching was a 17-year-old asking her dad, in exasperated disbelief, “Why are you standing like this?” and then physically correcting him, as if she were coaching him before a school dance photo instead of a global press line.
For the nostalgic fan who remembers Damon and Affleck as the scruffy kids of “Good Will Hunting,” that little scene on the carpet lands with a particular sweetness. They have traded late nights writing in borrowed apartments for late nights making sure their kids get to bed, swapped old Boston bars for New York premieres where their teenagers are the ones running the show.
The red carpet may be global, the Netflix money may be massive, and the names on the marquee may be legendary. But in that short, perfect clip of Gia Damon correcting her father’s stance, the most enduring part of the Matt Damon story snaps into focus. Under the tux and the titles, he is just a dad trying not to embarrass his kids in the photos, and that is a role even an Oscar cannot fully prepare you for.
