Bob Collins
Our commencement speech of the week came this morning in Cambridge, Mass., where actor Matt Damon returned to his hometown and, specifically, the campus on which he shot the film with his breakthrough role: Good Will Hunting.
He warmed up the crowd with the usual actor-turned-commencement-speaker stuff, and then took a flamethrower to the political and financial class.
“Let me say this to the bankers — specifically the ones that brought you the biggest heist in history,” Damon said. “It was theft, and you knew it. It was fraud, and you knew it. And you know what else? We know that you knew it.”
“So, yeah, you sort of got away with it,” he said. “You got that house in the Hamptons that other people paid for when their own mortgages went underwater. And you might have our money, but you don’t have our respect. Just so you know: When we pass you on the street and look you in the eye, that’s what we’re thinking.”
He got only a smattering of applause.
