--- description: Matt Damon uses toilet water for ALS Ice Bucket Challenge title: Matt Damon Uses Toilet Water for ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Still Looks Hot image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c4f436607af3934/6986a100361760856790d9df/matt-damon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Matt Damon Uses Toilet Water for His Ice Bucket Challenge by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 26, 2014 3:17 PM CUT  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](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 26, 2014 3:17 PM CUT 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/ "undefined"), both, helping the campaign raise about [$80 million](http://time.com/3173833/als-ice-bucket-challenge-fundraising-total/ "undefined").) 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/ "undefined"), 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. We have a feeling those guys will just use regular water though. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3181818/als-ice-bucket-challenge-matt-damon-uses-toilet-water/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3181818/als-ice-bucket-challenge-matt-damon-uses-toilet-water/"},"headline":"Matt Damon Uses Toilet Water for His Ice Bucket Challenge","datePublished":"2014-08-26T15:17:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:46.520Z","description":"He hoped to draw attention to the widespread lack of clean water around the world","url":"https://time.com/3181818/als-ice-bucket-challenge-matt-damon-uses-toilet-water/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Matt Damon","celebrity","Lou Gehrig's disease","ALS","als ice bucket challenge"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c4f436607af3934/6986a100361760856790d9df/matt-damon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c4f436607af3934/6986a100361760856790d9df/matt-damon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"'Behind The Candelabra' Premiere - The 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival","caption":"'Behind The Candelabra' Premiere - The 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival","creditText":"Vittorio Zunino Celotto—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3181818/als-ice-bucket-challenge-matt-damon-uses-toilet-water/","name":"Matt Damon Uses Toilet Water for His Ice Bucket Challenge"}}]}] ```