Matt Damon Was Using ‘F-Slur’ Months Ago Until His Daughter Got Him to Stop
Written by SOURCE on August 2, 2021
Matt Damon revealed in an interview with the UK newspaper The Sunday Times that he only recently stopped using a homophobic slur after one of his daughters wrote a lengthy treatise explaining how “dangerous” the word is.
“The word that my daughter calls the ‘f-slur for a homosexual’ was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application,” Damon said. “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!,” he continued, referencing to the 2003 Farrelly brothers-directed film about two conjoined twins. “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.”
Damon’s revelation has been interpreted as the 50-year-old actor was still unabashedly saying the “f-slur” just a few months ago, and never thought anything of it until his child brought it to his attention.
Back in 2015, Damon confronted rumors that he and longtime friend and Good Will Hunting collaborator Ben Affleck were gay by claiming that actors should remain secretive about aspects of their personal life, sexual orientation included.
“I think it must be really hard for actors to be out publicly,” he told The Guardian. “But in terms of actors, I think you’re a better actor the less people know about you, period. And sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether you’re straight or gay, people shouldn’t know anything about your sexuality because that’s one of the mysteries that you should be able to play.”
Damon also addressed his poorly-received remarks about Harvey Weinstein with The Sunday Times, summing up his public misstep by saying, “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.”
“Before it didn’t really matter what I said, because it didn’t make the news,” he continued. But maybe this shift is a good thing. So I shut the fuck up more.”
