US police officers sue Damon and Affleck, claiming Netflix thriller The Rip is ‘too real’
Miami officers allege The Rip gives the impression they committed the criminal acts that appear in the film
Two South Florida police officers claim Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s recent action thriller The Rip used too many real-life details in its fictionalised narrative, causing harm to the officers’ personal and professional reputations, according to a defamation lawsuit.
Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, sergeants in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, filed the lawsuit in Miami federal court earlier this month against Artists Equity, a film-production company owned by Affleck and Damon.
Court filings do not say how much the officers are suing for, but the civil complaint says they were seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and lawyer fees, as well as a public retraction and correction.
The Rip features Affleck and Damon as South Florida police officers who find millions of dollars inside a house. Parts of the movie were inspired by a real 2016 case, where police found over US$21 million linked to a suspected marijuana trafficker in a Miami Lakes home.
Affleck and Damon have said while promoting the film that the story was loosely based on accounts from Miami-Dade Police Captain Chris Casiano, who served as a technical adviser on the film. Damon told Associated Press during a January interview that he and Affleck spent time with Casiano and other narcotics officers in preparation for the film.
“We really wanted to kind of understand what those dynamics were like,” Damon said. “I mean, these units are very tight because they’re really putting their lives in each other’s hands, and they’re doing something that’s very dangerous.”