Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Two Miami Sheriff’s deputies have sued Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, claiming that the Hollywood actors’ portrayals in the Netflix crime drama make them look like “black cops”.
The officials, Jonathan Santana and Jason Smith, representing the Miami-Dade sheriff’s office, are seeking damages from the theater production company Artists Equity. The Rip is a play by a 2016 drugs A private home in Miami Lakes where $24m was found.
The money was found in 24 buckets containing a million dollars – hidden behind a drywall in the house – and represents the largest amount of money received by the Miami-Dade Police Department, which transformed into a sheriff’s office in January 2025.
The Netflix moviesDamon and Affleck have the leading roles, presenting a story of trials and trust, given a lot of money in the hands of the immediate and unsupervised group of drug dealers. Plaintiffs, who were among the real-life perpetrators of the destruction the film’s fictional story is built on, say The Rip misrepresents them.
“When you tear something, you steal something,” Santana said 7 News Miamiabout the theme of violent games. “We have never stolen a single dollar.
“(They’re) saying a lot, you know, how many buckets of money did I steal?”
This is not the first time that The Rip, which was released in January, has angered members of the South Florida village. Bryan Calvo, the mayor of Hialeah, criticized the film and its directors for choosing to set the shooting location in his city – not in the immediate neighborhood where the real marijuana house was located.
“This video is a slap in the face of our police,” Calvo said he said at a press conference at that time.
“Movies can tell stories, but they’re fiction. We respect fiction, but our job here, the men and women of the Hialeah Police Department, is to protect our citizens and protect the truth.”
An attorney representing Santana and Smith told 7 News that the lawsuit was filed because the officers “suffered serious reputational and professional damage” from their representation of Affleck and Damon.
“They portray the police as black, they portray my clients as black,” said the lawyer, Ignacio Alvarez. “Now their reputation is ruined.”
Alvarez also said the lawsuit – which was filed on May 6 in federal court in Florida – claims the two should have been paid as consultants, like another police officer who was not involved in the crime.
“If someone was paid for this story then they should be paid for being there,” he said.
None of the directors are mentioned by name in the film. This does not prevent a person from being defamed, but it often sets the bar for success, according to fraud lawyers.
“The description of a fictional character should be so closely related to a real person that a person who knows the person would have no problem connecting the two,” Lloyd Jassin, a publishing attorney, wrote on his blog. Copylaw.
“For a novel or other work of fiction to be successful, the reader must believe that the alleged libel is the author’s.”
According to report Monday on WCVB News, attorneys representing Artists Equity – the theater company were established together in 2022 — denied the allegations in a March response letter that was included with the original complaint.
The film used fictitious names, settings and stories – and the film’s objections indicated that the story was played out and not intended to portray real people, the report said.
The Guardian has contacted Artists Equity for comment.
Netflix, which is not part of the minister’s case, settled a defamation lawsuit in 2022 by chess grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili, who said she was defamed in her play The Queen’s Gambit, the The New York Times said.
Gaprindashvili, who was mentioned by name in the last part of the series, sued for “damaging lies” that he had never played with men – when in fact he had played with them and defeated many.
