Ever observed that characters inNetflixOriginal movies appear to repeat the film’s storyline repeatedly? Or that they constantly verbalize their actions or intentions? It turns out this is deliberate – andMatt Damon and Ben Affleck have just confirmed it.
For many years, it has been rumored that Netflixrequests its employed screenwriters to focus on “casual viewers”, meaning those who are looking at their phones or doing other things while watching. This, as mentioned by journalist Will Tavlin inn+1in 2025, it is demonstrated by characters who “state their actions so that viewers watching the show in the background can keep up.”
Although Netflix has never officially addressed these rumors, the truth might have been revealed by Damon and Affleck, the stars of thenew Netflix original film The Rip.
Making an appearance on Joe Rogan’s show this week, and during a conversation regarding the decline of cinemas and the prevalence of phone use in everyday life, Damon mentioned thatThe Ripneeded to follow many Netflix narrative guidelines.
The conventional approach to creating an action film, we discovered [years ago], involves three key sequences,” Damon explained. “One in the first act, one in the second, and one in the third. You typically allocate most of your budget for that final one. That’s your climax. Now [Netflix] are saying, ‘Can we have a major one within the first five minutes? They want viewers to stay.’
He continued, citing Netflix: “‘It wouldn’t be bad if you repeated the plot three or four times in the dialogue since people are on their phones while watching.’ It’s truly going to begin to interfere with storytelling.”
Affleck then interrupted, stating that not every Netflix narrative adheres to those rules.
But then you examineAdolescenceAnd it didn’t do any of that nonsense,” Affleck said. “And it’s absolutely fantastic.
“That seems more like the exception, though,” Damon added.
“My impression is that it shows you don’t have to do any of that nonsense,” concluded Affleck.
Somewhat ironically, The Rip– which casts the pair as members of a team of Miami police officers who come across stolen money – was described byThe Independentfilm critic Clarisse Loughrey’s moviecorrupted by some of these now-verified Netflix “rules”.
She stated: “It’s a character-driven story that doesn’t do much with its characters, as it has been affected by the Netflix curse of dialogue meant only for people who are distracted by their phones.”
While promoting the movie,Damon also shared his views with Joe Rogan regarding “cancel culture”, which caused some people to raise their eyebrows.
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