--- title: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Video: Matt Damon Uses Toilet Water description: Matt Damon uses toilet water for ALS Ice Bucket Challenge canonical: https://time.com/3181818/als-ice-bucket-challenge-matt-damon-uses-toilet-water/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-26T15:17:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:46.520Z og:title: Matt Damon Uses Toilet Water for ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Still Looks Hot og:description: He hoped to draw attention to the lack of clean water around the world og:url: https://time.com/3181818/als-ice-bucket-challenge-matt-damon-uses-toilet-water/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c4f436607af3934/6986a100361760856790d9df/matt-damon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: 'Behind The Candelabra' Premiere - The 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Matt Damon Uses Toilet Water for ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Still Looks Hot twitter:description: He hoped to draw attention to the lack of clean water around the world twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c4f436607af3934/6986a100361760856790d9df/matt-damon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Matt Damon Uses Toilet Water for His Ice Bucket Challenge > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=ad50b1e4-316d-4990-a5d6-301ece4dd54e&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Aug 26, 2014 3:17 PM UTC  Actor Matt Damon attends the 'Behind The Candelabra' premiere during The 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Theatre Lumiere on May 21, 2013 in Cannes, France. Actor Matt Damon attends the 'Behind The Candelabra' premiere during The 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Theatre Lumiere on May 21, 2013 in Cannes, France. Vittorio Zunino Celotto—Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Aug 26, 2014 3:17 PM UTC When nominated by his pals Ben Affleck and Jimmy Kimmel for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Matt Damon faced a bit of a dilemma. The challenge requires participants to either donate money toward amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research or dump water over their heads (or, as many [celebrities have done](http://time.com/3111965/here-are-the-27-best-celebrity-ice-bucket-challenge-videos/), both, helping the campaign raise about [$80 million](http://time.com/3173833/als-ice-bucket-challenge-fundraising-total/).) Damon was down to contribute to a good (and massively viral) cause, but didn’t want to waste clean water, as he’s the co-founder of [Water.org](http://water.org/), a non-profit dedicated to providing safe water and sanitation in the developing world. Damon’s solution to this conundrum? Just use toilet water — and also consider the video an opportunity to raise awareness about the lack of clean drinking water across the globe. “This is truly toilet water. I’ve been collecting it from various toilets around the house,” he says as he fills his bucket. ” For those of you like my wife who think this is really disgusting, keep in mind that the water in our toilets in the West is actually cleaner than the water that most people in the developing world have access to.” Then he dumps the toilet water over his head and nominates George Clooney, Bono and Tom Brady. 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