Ben Affleck Jokes About Matt Damon’s Gray Beard at Netflix Tudum Event as They Premiere The Rip Footage

Ben Affleck poked fun at Matt Damon during the Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event.

The longtime friends and collaborators were on hand to tease their upcoming film The Rip (previously known as RIP) during the showcase on Saturday, May 31.

Before premiering the first footage for the gritty-looking crime-thriller, Affleck joked to the audience, “I trusted Matt would shave the beard before Tudum — and here we are.”

Damon is sporting the beard as he’s currently hard at work on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, in which he stars as the ancient Greek mythological hero Odysseus. Universal revealed the first photo of Damon in character — dressed in armor and a cape with a coordinating headpiece — back on Feb. 17. The actor showed off some impressive action star abs and his long, gray beard in character as Odysseus in on-set photos released in March.

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A synopsis for The Rip teases, “Upon discovering millions in cash in a derelict stash house, trust among a team of Miami cops begins to fray. As outside forces learn about the size of the seizure, everything is called into question — including whom they can rely on.”

Affleck, 52, previously spoke onstage in January at the 2025 Next on Netflix Special Presentation in Los Angeles, introducing to attendees the first trailer for The Rip, directed by Joe Carnahan.

“This movie takes a look at the things people will do for money,” said Affleck at the event, adding that The Rip is going for a mix of Heat meets Narc meets Training Day.

Affleck, who produced via his and Damon’s company Artists Equity, called the movie a “really fun, engaging ride that keeps you guessing. It’s a compelling, complicated human drama that also hues to these elements of cinema that people have loved forever.”

Inspired by true events, The Rip also stars Teyana Taylor, Steven Yeun, Sasha Calle, Catalina Sandino, Néstor Carbonell and Kyle Chandler.

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In an April release, Carnahan, 56, told Tudum that the idea for The Rip “came out of a deeply personal experience that my friend went through, both as a father and as head of tactical narcotics for the Miami-Dade Police Department.”

He added, “It’s inspired in part by his life and then, by my enduring love for those classic ‘70’s cop thrillers that really valued the character and interpersonal relationships and became touchstones of that era — films like Serpico and Prince of the City and more recently, Michael Mann’s Heat.”

And the director praised having “the best of both worlds” in Affleck and Damon, 54, whom he called “distinctly talented filmmakers, as both creative allies and the studio heads.”

“I’ve never had as easy an experience on a movie as I had on The Rip,” Carnahan said. “They took exceptionally good care of me and backed my decisions every step of the way.”

The Rip arrives on Netflix January 16, 2026.

Source People.com