Matt Damon & Ben Affleck Sued For The Rip
ScreenRant • • general
Key Points:
- Matt Damon and Ben Affleck face a lawsuit from two Miami-Dade narcotics officers, Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, who claim the Netflix crime thriller "The Rip" damaged their reputations by portraying law enforcement negatively.
- The officers allege that characters resembling them in the film implied unethical behavior, including scenes of police protocol violations and a killing of a DEA agent, which they argue defames them and the sheriff's office.
- Smith and Santana's lawsuit accuses Damon, Affleck, and their production companies of defamation per se, defamation by implication, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, citing harm to their personal and professional lives.
- The officers' lawyers requested a delay of the film's release in December 2025 due to these concerns, but the producers proceeded with the January 2026 debut, dismissing the claims as invalid.
- Neither Damon, Affleck, their studio Artists Equity, nor Netflix have publicly responded to the lawsuit as of the article's publication.