Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are facing legal action over their new film, “Sweet Spot,” which they produced and star in. The thriller, based on the true story of Miami-Dade County police captain Chris Casiano, follows a group of police officers who discover millions in a cartel stash. This discovery leads the cops to suspect each other of trying to pocket the money discovered during the raid. Affleck and Damon play police officers in the film: Matt plays Lieutenant Dane Dumars, and Ben plays Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne. And the way it turned out on screen didn’t please real-life law enforcement officers Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana.
The lawsuit that Smith and Santana filed against the actors claims that they were the prototypes for the characters Affleck and Damon played. And now this is negatively affecting their lives and careers. According to documents obtained by Entertainment Weekly, Miami-Dade County police officers claimed that the film’s portrayal of law enforcement officers caused “substantial damage to their personal and professional reputations” because the film and its advertising “create the impression that they engaged in misconduct, reckless decisions, and unethical behavior in connection with a real police operation.”
The officers filed their lawsuit against Matt and Ben’s production company, Falco Productions, and Artists Equity, accusing them of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Smith and Santana are seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees. They are also demanding a “public retraction and correction” and a more “prominent warning” in the film, arguing that the “based on real events” statement is insufficient because, aside from “the fact that a mass brawl occurred, the events depicted in the film did not actually happen.”
