Amid Ocean’s 8’s glitzy Met Gala re-creation and lesbian energy, you may have noticed a curious lack of ostentatious cameos from people from that other Oceans series. (We won’t spoil the big third-act appearance here from one of the original 11 here, but: It’s not George Clooney.) Matt Damon and Carl Reiner both spoke about filming cameos for the new movie last summer, but they were left on the cutting-room floor. “[Picking the cameos] is an eclectic process of: how does it fit in the story and how is the narrative unfolding?†Ocean’s 8 director Gary Ross told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s New York City premiere. “This more than any movie I’ve done had a really copious editorial process where you play with stuff, you find stuff. I’ve never shot anything after I’ve wrapped on any other movie before, but in a heist movie and an ensemble movie, you’re still working on the play. And we did a bunch of that, and so that was satisfying as well.â€
After Matt Damon shared a few opinions about sexual misconduct and the #MeToo movement, an online petition called for his Ocean’s cameo to be cut. Ross said the backlash had nothing to do with the actor’s absence in the final film. “There were a lot of people who were gracious to us that just for editorial and storytelling reasons didn’t make it in and some who did,†he said. “If you know, we ended up shooting probably another 10 days afterwards, so there’s a lot of material and a lot of shaping. But it really just comes to storytelling.â€