Ben Affleck and Matt Damon sued by Miami cops for defamation over portrayal in their movie The Rip

Two officers in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office claim the actors’ Netflix crime drama caused “substantial harm to their personal and professional reputations.”

A new lawsuit accuses Ben Affleck and Matt Damon‘s latest movie of defaming the real people who allegedly inspired it.

Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, officers in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, are suing the actors’ company Artists Equity over the depiction of law enforcement characters in their recent Netflix crime drama, The Rip. 

Although Smith and Santana are not mentioned by name in the film, the lawsuit claims that Damon and Affleck’s characters are so heavily associated with the two officers that their portrayal has caused “substantial harm to their personal and professional reputations” because the movie and its advertisements “imply misconduct, poor judgment, and unethical behavior in connection with a real law enforcement operation.”

The officers’ complaint, which has been obtained and reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, accuses Artists Equity and Affleck and Damon’s LLC production company Falco Productions of defamation per se and defamation by implication. The officers have also brought a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Representatives for Affleck, Damon, and Artists Equity did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment. Netflix, which is not named as a defendant in the suit, declined to comment.

The Rip follows Lt. Dane Dumars (Damon) and Detective Sgt. J.D. Byrne (Affleck) as their discovery of $20 million of cartel cash reveals corruption within the Miami-Dade Police Department. 

The complaint claims that the case that served as the inspiration for the film was a real-life incident in which Smith and Santana seized more than $21 million in June 2016. As a result, the plaintiffs allege that “the film’s use of unique, non-generic details of the June 29, 2016, investigation, combined with its Miami-Dade setting and portrayal of a narcotics team, creates a reasonable inference that the officers depicted are Plaintiffs.”

Smith and Santana’s complaint outlines a number of moments in the film wherein the characters bend the rules of typical police procedure, including one scene in which Affleck’s character kills a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. The plaintiffs also allege that although the film opens with text that says the project was “inspired by true events,” aside from “the fact that a large seizure occurred, the events portrayed in the film did not happen.”

Smith and Santana’s attorneys allege that family members and colleagues have told the plaintiffs that they “must have used seized funds to complete personal property improvements, purchase vehicles and vessels, and afford private schooling for their children” as a result of the movie. Those comments have led the attorneys to argue “that viewers are associating the Miami-Dade Police Department and Plaintiffs with the corrupt portrayals in The Rip.”

The complaint also claims that Smith and Santana’s lawyers sent the companies behind the film a letter enumerating the allegedly defamatory details in the movie and demanded that they “cease and desist from releasing” it in December 2025.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys then allege that the defendants responded to their inquiry after the film was released in January 2026 by saying that the “concerns are unfounded because the film did not expressly name Sergeant Smith and there was no implication that the Plaintiffs engaged in any misconduct in the film.”

Smith and Santana’s lawyers demand “a public retraction and correction,” including “the addition of a prominent disclaimer” to the movie. 

The two officers are seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney fees.

Via: Entertainment Weekly