Matt Damon Says He's Never Called A Gay Person The F Word Personally Despite Only Retiring The Word A Couple Of Months Back
Aug. 2 2021, Published 7:49 p.m. ET
Matt Damon is trying to clarify comments he made during a recent interview, where he revealed he only recently stopped using the derogatory F word when referencing members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The 50-year-old caused a stir after talking to U.K.’s Sunday Times where he described a recent incident with his daughter. He revealed he only stopped using the “f-slur for a homosexual” a couple of months back.
He claimed the F word was used when he was a kid with “a different application.”
He 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!'' "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,” he recalled.
Now, Damon is adding context to the story and claiming he never called anyone the F word personally. He doesn’t deny that he retired the word recently but says he never used it towards an individual.
He issued a statement reading, "I have never called anyone ‘f****t’ in my personal life and this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening. I do not use slurs of any kind."
The Good Will Hunting actor promises, "I have learned that eradicating prejudice requires active movement toward justice rather than finding passive comfort in imagining myself ‘one of the good guys.’ And given that open hostility against the LGBTQ+ community is still not uncommon, I understand why my statement led many to assume the worst."
He ended, "To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.”
The actor explained, “During a recent interview, I recalled a discussion I had with my daughter where I attempted to contextualize for her the progress that has been made – though by no means completed – since I was growing up in Boston and, as a child, heard the word ‘f*g’ used on the street before I knew what it even referred to."
"I explained that that word was used constantly and casually and was even a line of dialogue in a movie of mine as recently as 2003; she in turn expressed incredulity that there could ever have been a time where that word was used unthinkingly."
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It appears Damon's PR team is working overtime to clean up the mess he left after his UK interview. It's not like his comments could hurt his new movie Stillwater anymore at the box office. The film bombed over the weekend with a $5 million debut.
