Matt Damon Kills As Brett Kavanaugh In ‘SNL’ Season 44 Cold Open: ‘I’m Not Backing Down You Sons Of B******!’
Matt Damon earned immediate rave reviews in the instantaneous reactions from Twitter users, when he opened the 44th season of Saturday Night Live by portraying Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Damon played the embattled pick as a snarling, nervously sniffing, water-guzzling, rageaholic who at one point describes himself as “the proudest, drunkest virgin you’ve ever seen,” the Hollywood Reporter noted.
The full sketch parodied Kavanaugh’s high-decibel testimony on Thursday in which he appeared to blame the sexual assault allegations against him on a conspiracy motivated in part by “revenge on behalf of the Clintons,” as the Inquisitr reported. The cold open extended for nearly 10 minutes. It also featured SNL regulars Cecily Strong and Alex Moffat as Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Grassley. Former cast member Rachel Dratch returned to make an appearance as Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar.
At the start of the segment, when Moffat’s “Grassley” asks Damon’s “Kavanaugh” if he is ready to begin his testimony, “Kavanaugh” replies, “Oh hell yeah! I’ll tell you this — I’m gonna start at an 11 and I’m gonna take it to a 15 real quick,” ABC News quoted.
“How would Saturday Night Live handle Kavanaugh?” asked Vox. “With LOTS OF YELLING and furtive crying and MORE YELLING and then occasionally messy water chugging (or more specifically, shot-gunning).”
Watch the SNL segment featuring the Bourne Identity star as Kavanaugh in the video below.
Former Charmed star Alyssa Milano, who has since become an outspoken political activist, and who has revealed that she, herself, is a sexual assault survivor, attended Thursday’s hearing as a guest of Feinstein, according to the New York Post.
Milano’s presence did not got unnoticed by SNL, with a life-size cardboard cutout of the actress popping up several times during the sketch. Milano posted a screen shot of her ersatz appearance in the SNL sketch on her own Twitter account.
#SNL pic.twitter.com/Md0lqlcbfV
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 30, 2018
Other Twitter users were also enthusiastic about the SNL take on the Kavanaugh testimony, which followed dramatic testimony earlier the day from Christine Blasey Ford, the first of three women who have now come forward publicly to allege sexual assaults by or involving Kavanaugh. Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart was among the fans.
Matt Damon is killing it as Kavanaugh. #snl
— Jonathan Capehart (@CapehartJ) September 30, 2018
And Paul Begala, a CNN commentator and former White House adviser to President Bill Clinton, chimed in as well.
Matt Damon perfectly captured the rage, self-aggrandizement, and self-pity of Brett Kavanaugh on the season premiere of @nbcsnl
— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) September 30, 2018
Daily Beast writer Matt Wilstein seemed to enjoy the segment’s conclusion most of all.
This is how Matt Damon's Brett Kavanaugh ended the #SNLPremiere cold open https://t.co/azugl01D19 pic.twitter.com/aMGiIpnjaZ
— Matt Wilstein (@mattwilstein) September 30, 2018
Damon’s version of Kavanaugh summed up the Supreme Court nominee’s attitude in the hearing, pointing at the camera and shouting, “I’m not backing down, you sons of b******!”
