Matt Damon was interviewed by The Sunday Times and the article was published after the release of his latest film Stillwater. In the interview, the actor claimed that he recently stopped using a homophobic slur after his daughter asked him not to anymore.
“The word that my daughter calls the ‘f-slur for a homosexual’ was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application,” he said in the interview. “I made a joke, months ago, and got a treatise from my daughter.”
“She left the table. I said, ‘Come on, that’s a joke! I say it in the movie Stuck on You!’ She went to her room and wrote a very long, beautiful treatise on how that word is dangerous.”
“I said, ‘I retire the f-slur!’ I understood.”
As pointed out by The Hollywood Reporter the actor also addressed criticisms he faced from his previous comments surrounding the many allegations against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.
“As the father of four daughters, this is the kind of sexual predation that keeps me up at night,” he said in 2017 after the many allegations against Weinstein emerged.
“I understand,” he said in the interview. “It’s a fair point. Anybody should be offended by that behaviour.”
According to Buzzfeed, Damon also claimed that his interview comments are being received differently than they used to be: “Twenty years ago, the best way I can put it is that the journalist listened to the music more than the lyrics [of an interview]. Now your lyrics are getting parsed, to pull them out of context and get the best headline possible.”
“Everyone needs clicks. Before it didn’t really matter what I said, because it didn’t make the news. But maybe this shift is a good thing. So I shut the f**k up more.”
Born Oct 8, 1970, Matthew Paige Damon, known popularly as Matt Damon is an American actor, producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among Forbes‘ most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North American box office, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He has received various awards and nominations, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. /TISG