Matt Damon has said that he recently decided to stop using a homophobic slur after his daughter criticised him for doing it.
The actor, who stars in new film Stillwater, revealed in a new interview that he made a “joke” involving what his daughter calls the “f-slur for a homosexual” just “months ago”.
Damon, 50, told The Sunday Times that his daughter criticised him for using the offensive term and, after she “left the table”, he told her: “Come on, that’s a joke! I say it in the movie Stuck on You!”
The Jason Bourne actor said: “I made a joke, months ago, and got a treatise from my daughter. 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 admission came after acknowledging that his quotes are picked up by news outlets more regularly now than they were when his career launched in the mid-1990s.
“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],” he said. “Now your lyrics are getting parsed, to pull them out of context and get the best headline possible.
Matt Damon said he stopped using a homophobic slur after his daughter explained why he shouldn’t
(CBS News)
“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*** up more.”
He then proceeded to share the anecdote about saying the homophobic slur.
The Independent has contacted Damon’s representative for comment.