Minnie Driver says social media ‘would have helped tell her side of the story’

Minnie Driver has said social media would have helped her tell her side of the story in the 1990s when she faced scrutiny about her personal life and work.

The 54-year-old British actress shot to fame after her Oscar-nominated role in 1997’s Good Will Hunting, in which her character Skylar dated Matt Damon’s character Will.

The pair went on to date in real life before Damon announced he was single during an Oprah Winfrey interview in 1998.

Speaking to Kirsty Young on BBC Radio 4’s podcast Young Again, she recalled how she was “completely subjugated” and “defined” by her relationship with Damon.

“Like when we look at it now, it’s completely absurd and there was no recourse,” she said.

“There was no social media. There was no way of, like, you can make a video where people could connect with who you actually are.”

Asked if she thinks it is better now that you can amplify your own voice on social media, she said: “I do, yes. A hundred percent. For me, it would be.

“I think it’s a dangerous place when you can go on sobbing and ruined… like, of course it has its downsides.

“But for me personally, I would have loved to be able to.”

However, the actress admitted she is unsure she could have gone over everything in a “measured way” due to the intensity of the attention.

“It was such a relentless assault particularly by the British tabloids, it was extraordinary and it was visited on young women more than it was on men,” she said.

Over the years, Driver has spoken about how she was vilified for speaking up about the sexism she faced in the industry before the #MeToo movement opened up the conversation.

She previously told The Times that Harvey Weinstein, whose company Miramax Films distributed Good Will Hunting, had objected to her casting due to her appearance.

The #MeToo era began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against movie mogul Weinstein.

Driver, who went on to star in TV series including The Riches and Speechless, said she is unsure if she missed out on jobs because of being outspoken but thinks there were a couple of producers who “would never work” with her afterwards.

She added: “I didn’t have it half as bad as some other women who whistle-blew in a sexual capacity, mine was querying things that if a man had queried it, there would be no question.

“And I know that there are a lot of actresses who went through, as we found out, post ‘Me Too’ through a lot of much darker, nefarious experiences at the hands of producers in Hollywood.”

Discussing if she thinks things have improved in the industry for young actresses, Driver said: “I ask them all the time and it’s so interesting and wonderful because a lot of them don’t have any experience at all with that.

“It wouldn’t cross their mind that they wouldn’t stand up and say ‘this is not okay’, or ‘could you explain this to me’, and ‘could you explain how this works and what’s the expectation around this’?

“Like I feel that there’s a lot more articulation… it’s kind of amazing.

“And I feel like an old war horse sometimes going, ‘Good God, this is great’. Like that’s why we did all of that so that these young girls now do feel safe to say stuff and not fear reprisal.”

BBC Radio 4’s Young Again is available on BBC Sounds.