It would not be a Matt Damon promotional trail without him saying something awful and offensive. He’s done this so many times, it’s a wonder that nothing ever really sticks to him permanently. Teflon Matty, I suppose. Hopefully that’s not the case here, because good God, he sucks. Matt Damon is currently promoting Git Er Done Overseas, and he chatted with the Times of London about how white guys aren’t movie star anchors anymore and how he was casually throwing around a homophobic slur until very, very recently. Some excerpts:
The children don’t know how to watch movies: “The way they watch is different to how we did. How can you watch a movie if you are texting? As someone who makes these things I can’t say I love that. Movies as we know them aren’t going to be a thing in our kids’ lives. And that makes me sad.”
The rise of superhero films: “If you want a movie to travel and play big, you want the least amount of cultural confusion. So there’s the rise of the superhero movie, right? They’re easy for everyone. You know who the good person is, who the bad person is.”
The homophobic slur: “The word that my daughter calls the ‘f-slur for a homosexual’ was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application. 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.”
His “as the father of four daughters” statement about Harvey Weinstein: “I understand,” he said, referring to the backlash he received. “It’s a fair point. Anybody should be offended by that behavior.”
Clickbait & controversy: “20 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*** up more.”
Again, he was saying the F-slur “months ago.” Not “years ago.” Not “decades ago.” Even that would have been bad enough! Back in the 1990s, we knew better than to use that f–king word, so Matt arguing that he said it in an early-00s movie and that’s why he can still use it in 2021 does not hold any water. This dumbass is 50 years old and he only stopped using that homophobic slur this year, after his daughter protested. Ugh. Gia and Stella Damon are gonna be starting sentences with “As the daughter of a homophobic douche-canoe father…”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
I think this shows that these people live in a bubble of yes men and yes women. How is it no one called him on this sooner? Because he’s a STAH and so everyone kisses his arse.
But…he and his wife raised a daughter who can write passionately against homophobia, so that’s something.
Came to say the same— celebs live in such a little bubble of non-reality it is disgusting. My jaw dropped at “months ago”.
Bubble of delusions is right… here’s my concern – HOW INAPPROPRIATE must the ‘joke’ have been that he told his preteen daughters to include that word????? He’s out of touch on many levels, not just the one where he only recently gave up using the word, why would he think it’s okay to tell his young daughters a joke like that?
ALSO… I think what he ‘may’ be referring to with the word having another context is also super problematic… I’m the same age as him, and at some point in early childhood learned that word had been used in generations past as a term for a cigarette. BUT, that’s for the shortened version of the slur ‘f*g’ and that’s SO not an excuse to have used it freely back then, and certainly not now. All of us the same age as Matt knew growing up it was wrong to use (both versions), and the generation that called cigarettes that name was like, our parents generation… but only if your parents were quite a bit older when they had kids, like older boomers.
Matt is an idiot to say this to the public thinking it’s a ‘cute anecdote about his daughter, and his daughters must be incredibly embarrassed now for having a father so completely out of touch.
Bye Matt, I’m going to go look at pics of Ben kissing Jen at lunch the day.
I think celebrities who are smart actually do have people around them who can talk to them about these things. Matt Damon has always had a “I did the math about what what acceptable 20 years ago, I don’t have to examine my biases, politics etc again now, I was way ahead of all of you” POV. Which is actually sort of an outlier in a lot of ways. He gets pretty huffy when someone tells him he is wrong. I can’t think of anyone else with the sort of liberal cred he has who would do this.
He seems to always think he’s the smartest guy in the room. It’s very clear in those Project Greenlight specials.
Compared to Ben and Casey, Matt WAS the smartest guy in the room. Now, he’s just an idiot. It’s a shame, as I loved Good Will Hunting (but mostly for Robin Williams).
Yeah. That type will cover their ears, go “Not listening! You’ll just say any little thing is homophobic!” (or whatever other thing that’s being called out) and moan about the real issue being that modernfolk are too sensitive now. There’s always some story about how they’re part of a small group of people left that’s still able to see things logically. I wonder if publicly or privately he’s the extra nasty type who will double down on the dehumanizing stereotypes and make things up because he was given attitude? Or will he actually show some growth this time?
I totally remember my parents and grandparents saying things that were totally wrong and calling them out. I’m 37 and I’ve used the terms “spaz” and “lame” (sorry to spell them out but i hope people can read this and learn) and recently learned about ableist language so i work very hard to research what ableist terms are and how to avoid them because i don’t want to hurt people with my words.
I do think the f word is pretty obviously a slur. it sounds like he took the criticism and thought about it. I hope he agrees to create a welcoming space for others through language.
Agreed. I had a similar conversation with my 11 year old, letting him know ALL the things that were regularly used in the 80s and 90s, and why we don’t use those words anymore. My most shameful use was regularly referring to behavior that I didn’t understand as schizophrenic. I did that all the time, in my younger days.
I am more surprised by Matt Damon saying it out loud, in an interview, that can be interpreted any way, by anyone. I think he’s trying to say we are all a lot smarter and better informed now, but I don’t know why he put his head on the chopping block like this.
I saw something that suggested he released this story to get ahead of a bigger story that is about to drop. I don’t know if I trust the source, but in theory, it makes sense. I can’t think of any other reason to make this story public.
He thought he did something.. imagine admitting that like it’s a cute story when you are 50 years old with a production company etc. What other slurs has he just dropped recently?
That’s the bit that gets me, ‘look at me, I’m growing too’. This isn’t the story he thinks it is! Good grief. How do you get to FIFTY in modern America and travelling the world making movies and not know this is a terrible slur?
He continues to show quite how awful he really is and he clearly has no real interest in taking on board people’s shocked reactions as a sign that he might want to do some work on himself.
He knows. He just doesn’t care and there are no consequences for it.
Even Eminem dropped the f word a while back. Matt is a big galoot, and as said above; he is living in a bubble.
If he uses the f-slur he uses racial slurs. He clearly believes cis-het white men are superior.
But he’s the father of daughters!!!!!!
I know!!! I can’t believe he thought this was something he should share publicly. I didn’t read the full piece, was he in some way prompted? Or did he randomly just tell this awful story?
I’m really glad his daughter is a decent person and read him the riot act for it.
But also… what is the different context that he thinks this word was used in back when he was a kid?
“The word that my daughter calls the ‘f-slur for a homosexual’ was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application.“
No it wasn’t. It meant the same thing, then. It was meant to be hurtful then. The only people who thought it was a fun “joke” were bullies who wanted call gay people a hurtful slur to their face and then say they were “just joking” to get out of trouble. But they weren’t joking. Or people who wanted to “jokingly” shame a guy for doing something that was too feminine, and thus possibly “gay.” But again it meant the same thing. It’s the exact same context, same application, everything. Does he think as long as you’re not screaming the word at an LGBT person’s face in a threatening way, that the word suddenly means something else?
Trump also has daughters. Just because men raise daughters does not mean the automatically become feminists. How many daughters do the Duggar’s have??
Trump also has daughters. Just because men raise daughters does not mean the automatically become feminists. How many daughters do the Duggar’s have??
It’s so stupid to bring it up that i’m wondering if he’s trying to get ahead of someone else revealing it.
Or maybe he’d prefer to be asked about that than about Amanda Knox’s statement about the film
I guess he’s trying to brag (?) about his daughter, but it really makes him look out of touch and awful. I don’t know anybody in 2021 who’s using that word and doesn’t know damn well it’s offensive.
Good for his daughter that she stood her ground and didn’t let him get away with it.
She sounds like a great human being, so I assume she takes after her mother.
What the absolute f*ck? And he thought this was a cute story to tell a reporter? OMFG! And the reporter was just like wow see how he’s willing to listen and grow. Of course it’s a Times reporter, showing that paper is just a tabloid with a fancier rep. Beyond gross.
He’s a terrible person. My question now is when did he stop using the n-word?
Yup.
He probably hasn’t stopped using either one, he’s just trying to get people to go see his new movie. What a dick.
He probably still uses the R word to. And frankly the F word just in in front of his kid. Because “she says it’s a slur”-as if the rest of us would just laugh at her being a silly kid
I think it’s more likely he uses the R word than the N word, yeah. I know he’s from Boston, and I do know how racist Boston is and often gets a pass because they’re not the south, but…something makes me feel he is smart enough (by a hair) to have stopped using the n word very early on. But the r word? Yeah. I think so. I thought about that actually when I first read this.
Yup – definitely uses the R word. I’ve been turned off by him ever since his “damonsplaining” diversity to Effie Brown, a Black female producer. And he was also a big #notallmen guy despite years of him working closely with Weinstein. Really can’t stand this guy.
Please don’t think I’m an idiot……what is the R word???
@Premadonna, it is the word ret*rded, commonly used in the past for people who have cognitive deficits. It has been considered a slur for at least 2 decades in the field of education in North America but is still spoken far too often.
He’s never been the sharpest tool in the shed. Throw some massive entitlement with a dash of ignorance into the mix and you get a person who says “I am not homophobic, i have gay friends”; “I am not racist, my cleaning lady is black; “I am not a misogynist, I have daughters”. That’s Matty for you. Totally relatable.
He went to Harvard. He’s not stupid. But he is a jerk.
Lots of dumb af people go to Harvard
So he’s book-smart. He’s still not that bright.
1. So did G.W. Bush.
2. One can be both.
Like I said, he’s not stupid. He’s a jerk.
I think W went to Yale.
I think W went to Yale.
I don’t think he’s stupid either. I think he might be entitled and annoying though.
He majored in English, which makes the use of the slur even stranger to me. You’re usually trained in a humanities discipline to understand how words can inflict a certain kind of pain.
I don’t mind his movies and have never found him bad in a role so every time he reveals something no one asked to be revealed, I wince. This wasn’t a revelation that anyone was forcing him to share, so I really don’t get it.
@Smile: Yale and Harvard Business School afterwards.
@questions: That’s what I mean why I say about him not being the sharpest anything. He posesses the emotional intelligence of a plant (my apologies to plants). It doesn’t matter what he studied, nothing seems to have stuck to his smooth brain.
Celebs get in anywhere, it doesn’t say anything about their intelligence.
I think Damon got into Harvard before he was a celebrity. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have advantages in other ways to get good grades. He seems a little determined to be set in his ways. Not sure if that might also be a marker of having gone to Harvard ( being called among the best and the brightest from a young age and assuming you can’t be wrong. ) His fixation on acting like he’s from Clint Eastwood’s generation is a little baffling to me though.
Matt didn’t graduate from Harvard. He did go there, so good for him. His comment on interviews being like lyrics in music is dumb. I guess he didn’t study up on bad analogies.
He was a semester short of getting his bachelor’s degree in English. He was offered an acting role I guess he thought was too good to pass up and left early to take it.
So… is he getting temporarily cancelled like DaBaby? Is Elton “Performs with Eminem at the VMAs” John going to do a Twitter call out?
Or do we not hold white male Bostonians accountable for anything (Mark Wahlberg).
Nothing will happen to him. He’s a total white bro and other white bros will continue to support him since they probably say the same word when no one else is around
See also, Casey Affleck, who Matt campaigned HARD for for that Oscar.
In Elton John’s defense, he was basically Eminem’s sponsor during his efforts to recover from his addictions, and felt Eminem was not homophobic in his personal life. I think that is why Elton John, as concerns Eminem, separated the art from the artist, but, as concerns Da Baby, is unwilling to do so.
I think Mark Wahlberg’s ability to avoid cancellation is also probably due in large part to his efforts to publicly own and apologize for his actions, and due to one of his victims (notably not all) believing he deserved a second chance when he sought an expungement.
Eminem and Mark Wahlberg are, to me, different from the Matt Damons of the world. The former basically raised themselves in very challenging conditions, and having escaped those conditions, sought (in varying degrees and with varied success) to evolve into better people. I’m probably being unfair in typing this, but Matt Damon never struck me as someone interested in evolving. He seems like someone who, by privilege of birth to white stable parents who were moderately well off, living in a more stable community, and having early success in his career, never tried to evolve because he felt no reason to. He seems perfectly happy to continue to tacitly benefit, without striving in any respect toward any equity that he cannot tie directly to a personal benefit (“as a father with daughers I care about me too, blah blah”)
These are all excuses. Elton didn’t have to perform with Eminem at the VMAS. In addition to the homophobia Em was willing to put on wax, there was the violent misogyny and the racism.
Mark Wahlberg “apologized” in the midst of seeking a pardon for his crime. An apology that didn’t cover his many other racist attacks as a youth.
White men stay having people make excuses for them while those same people make no exceptions for anyone else.
To be clear, I don’t think any of this background excuses them. I’m trying to explain why I think Mark Wahlberg managed to avoid “cancellation”. I’m also explaining why I think Elton John seemed fine with separating the art from the artist as concerns Eminem and appearing on stage with him at the VMAs (when had it been anyone else that never would have happened).
All this shit is run by white men, so I’m putting “cancellation” in quotes because white man “cancellation” is only temporary unless they are convicted of a crime, and even then, only to an extent.
I also agree with you that Da Baby’s “cancellation” is 100% temporary, until people move on to the next thing, seemingly just like Tory Lanez, whose ass should never have been on the stage.
Well said, and I agree on Wahlberg and Eminem as well. It doesn’t excuse them but it is at least an explanation. Damon has neither. While his parents may not have been wealthy (I have no idea), he was raised in upper middle class Cambridge and then continued to Harvard. Being the same age he has no excuse- it’s been considered inappropriate long before Good Will Hunting honestly.
I see what you mean, that could be part of the reason why someone may look at their actions differently. But there are men who grew up poor or were in not so great environments who manage to be less insensitive than those two men have been. Eminem and Mark Wahlberg’s backgrounds shouldn’t be relevant though. Their behavior goes beyond some of the more gray area issues that bring out people’s inner Red Pill. People don’t become misogynistic and homophobic because their parents didn’t have money. It’s a choice. Some guys who had difficult upbringings choose to make an effort to respect queer people and women, while others just don’t care (and other poor people who happen to be queer, female, or both have to find ways to put up with it).
I agree with you, Otaku fairy at a certain juncture it does become a choice.
I was raised in one of the many armpits of Tennessee with a racist father and grandfathers and grandmother (one grandmother and my mother were not racist). It was a weird childhood where my mother acted in concert with us to hide our non-white friends from my father, not because anyone felt his thinking was fine to perpetuate, but moreso because we didn’t want to weather his abuse in its varied forms and we all knew he would never change.
I was 100% raised to pass along racism by these men and one woman. I think those environments might excuse being an asshole in the single digits or very early teens, because it is what you are taught to believe, but once you have access to tools to inform yourself, at that point it becomes a choice.
I think Mark Wahlberg was taught to be racist, and at a later point made some effort to outwardly make a choice not to continue to be a racist asshole (although when he did so I do think it was too late, and he continues to be problematic as concerns women). I also think Eminem continued to practice misogyny well beyond any reasonable point, and then made the decision to profit off of that and homophobia, whether or not he actually harbored those feelings internally.
However, I also think society wants to reward people who do put in some degree of effort (rightly or wrongly). I think, for Eminem, to Elton John, that effort came in the form of recovery from substance abuse. I think, for Mark Wahlberg, it came in the form of making a formal apology, and one of his victims (only one, despite several instances of him being a shit to others who weren’t willing to forgive) feeling like he had changed.
Do I think it is enough? No, I continue to dislike them both and think in each case that their “pass” is bullshit absent anything more than what they have done so far. But I do think, with where our society is today, that it has something to do with why neither of them ended up “cancelled”.
Agreed. With some limits in place, that would be a healthy thing if women making some degree of effort was ok too. Instead of their wrongs serving as perpetual, convenient excuses for all the rightwing talking points that have just made this world a more dangerous place than it has to be for some people.
I definitely agree with you about this too: “Eminem continued to practice misogyny well beyond any reasonable point, and then made the decision to profit off of that and homophobia, whether or not he actually harbored those feelings internally.” His bad behavior went way past the timeframe you mentioned. Could you imagine if “Th*tiana” from ANY group just decided she was going to wait until around 40 or 50 to make those kinds of changes? Not that it should take anyone that long. And if the doing better didn’t come with some kind of repentant ( ) makeover and celibacy? That would be sooo unacceptable on both sides, LOL!
What an idiot. And I really like Matt, but he still didn’t get it when he said it wasn’t used in that context. There’s no other meaning, Matt, even in your stupid joke you were telling.
P.S. Did you really think this was a cute story for an interview? That’s a story and revelation you keep to yourself. Maybe if you added on to your story that after reading that treatise by your daughter you felt completely ashamed as to how clueless you have been it might have made you look not quite as tone deaf as you still seem to be.
I don’t remember the movie, was it used in some way that takes it out of being a slur?
It’s not a word I’ve ever used, but I guess I can *almost* understand if you’re used to using a word without thinking about it, then you’d likely be on the slower end of stopping using it. Good for his daughter for not putting up with it.
Similarly, I always struggle with the use of the f-word in the song American Idiot, I always find it pretty jarring, but maybe that’s the point? I’ve never heard anyone say anything about it, so that makes me wonder if the context makes it okay? It’s a weird area where I don’t like it, but the lack of general outrage about it makes me think I’m missing something?
That’s interesting. I love that song. I always thought of that line as sort of an “I am Spartacus” moment. But I could be wrong, I’m not gay and I don’t get to say.
I have a similar reaction every time I hear Money for Nothing on the radio. It came out in 1985 so I don’t know what attitudes were like here in the UK at that point and whether people were going out of their way to be aggressively homophobic or just didn’t think it was a particularly offensive term so were just being casually homophobic. But I absolutely cringe every time I hear it.
Yeah it feels mean and more of a direct slur in Money for Nothing. Is it left in on radio? I thought it had been edited out when it plays on air today.
I cringe when I here the line in MFN, but I try to keep in mind that MK is singing the part of a bigoted self-centered man-child in that song, so as offensive as it is, he’s mocking people who think like that.
That’s the thing @Katherine, I would assume it would be edited out but no. That’s not hard with current technology but no one seems to care? Maybe I need a different commercial radio station.
Thanks for the input @North of Boston, that helps!
I think you’re misreading the song. He’s singing from the perspective of someone who thinks music is stupid – he’s singing as a persona of someone who gets paid for physical labor and can’t believe other people can actually make money singing. It’s meant to show how close minded the character in the song is.
For the record, I have NEVER liked Matt Damon. He is some producer’s idea of what a “normal,” straight, manly-without being too over the top, dad-like actor should be. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that he was an alien life form masquerading as a human.
I think it’s meant to be subversive in American Idiot. A lot of themes on that whole album of disdain AT the people who speak/think that way. I always read it as a “f-you then call me one too” type mood.
Yes, that’s how I always interpreted that line too Katherine.
Thanks everyone!
I’m not sure that I think being subversive makes it okay, it can sometimes feel like a ‘have your cake and eat it too’ thing to me. Like I’m going to use this slur, but if I simultaneously criticize it, then I get brownie points for it — I’m not saying others have to take it that way, it’s just how I take these things sometimes.
Yeah it’s complicated to use slurs artistically like that, though I do think both the song and album American Idiot have a very clear context as to how/why the word is being used. I do agree with you it’s jarring to hear in song. Though Billy Joe as a bisexual guyliner and sparkles wearing guy in a heavily masculine genre is probably a little better positioned to use it than Matt Damon. Damon has never come off as anything other than your standard gross, racist, homophobic Boston bro, he just coasted for awhile on some faux golden boy energy.
There’s an Elvis Costello song called Oliver’s Army that uses the phrase “white n-word”.
It was used to refer to Irish Catholics, in the context of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. I’m a huge EC fan and love that song, but it’s a difficult word to hear.
I’ve always felt odd about the South Park episode on it, where they basically tried to redefine the word by making the point that it is often used as an insult unrelated to sexuality (in the episode, trying to tie it to impolite bikers). I don’t think you can ever really untie the two. GLAAD also prepared a response objecting to the episode shortly after it aired.
Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anyone who sticks their foot in their mouth while promoting a film quite like this guy. Why on earth would you admit to still be using a derogatory term -at 50 no less- in the first place?
I mean, it’s generally a bunch of nonsense. American superhero movies are not culturally infused by their origin, and don’t carry specifically American tropes of what is good and evil and/or (American exceptionalist/imperialist) messaging? Ok! 😂 and movie watching/ media consumption changes all the time, how the generation before him consumed visual media was different than his experience, too. Adapt or perish, dude
How many passes does this guy get? Oh to white, rich man.
Once again, a celebrity saying the quiet parts out loud. Like why admit this? Did he think we would all congratulate him for no longer saying that word?! And what other offensive word/slurs is he saying? Does he say the N-word or if not, when did he stop?
That jealous heifer, Ben is getting too much attention, want the spotlight on him, so spilling about his homophobic self, if a child under 20 knew not to use that word, pity the smartest man, must have been hiding under a rock.
I am the same age as him and also grew up knowing that word. But always knew it’s an awful word, have never used it, and stayed miles away from anyone who did. His entire remark is disgusting and just shows his entitlement and narcissism. I really feel bad for his daughters. It’s got to be hard to have a father like that.
But he says it was “different meaning back in the day” Like I want to know that era because that’s always always been a slur as far back as I remember and I’m in my 40s
He’s lying. It had the same meaning then as it has now.
Maybe he consumed a lot of media (novels) about British people smoking cigarettes back in the day? Only thing I can figure. In US culture it’s only had the one meaning.
Yea, not buying the ”different application’ bit. He’s been around enough to know better. His Tom Ripley/Scott Thorson characters – covered a lot of the conversation. His teenage daughter had to put it in writing for him to understand? Did she have to use small words?
@AmB, I’m not giving a pass on the word only being used/meaning in Britain/UK as as cigarette. The variations of the f word have subtle/not so subtle different meanings going back centuries across the pond. If you do a search at stronglang.wordpress.com with the word/s-there are different explanations.
It has always meant one thing in our society, and he knows it.
Wow. We definitely knew in the 90s that this word was not OK.
Yeah, I was in high school in the early 90s, and it was not OK then.
There was a time when I really liked Matt. He was hitting it big with the Bourne films and other small, interesting roles, and he kept his family very private. But holy hell, in the past few years he has revealed his true self, and it is not good. The Effie Brown stuff, the Weinstein comments, the support of Casey Affleck, and now this mess. Good Lord. He really should STFU, as he says.
Matt’s cis het rich white bro-dude privilege is showing again, just like on Project Greenlight.
Oh and his “it meant something different back in my day” is BS; it meant the same d**m thing then as it does now.
He was trying to brag about his daughter, but he told the story as if he’d made a little embarrassing mistake and she schooled him. No, that’s not a minor gaffe, it’s a full-on aggression about a whole section of our society. The story was not cute. It made him look like the privileged jackass he is.
Give me a break, Matt. I’m around his age and that slur was not acceptable back in the day (unless you were a douchebag jock). What an ass. Glad his daughter called him out.
On the one hand, yes, it’s bad that he stopped using it months ago. On the other, it’s important–and rare–for anyone these days to admit current wrongs freely and model good behavior for other white people. Straight white men tend to listen to straight white men. So, the more straight white men who publicly see the light, even if it is late, and admit that, the better.
This is modelling good behaviour for straight white men? They know – they ALL know. It’s much better that these straight white men see that there are *consequences* for doing it anyway that will change their behaviour.
My only pushback with your statement is that it’s insulting to the millions of straight White men (as well as ANY straight man) who learned DECADES ago that calling gay men f*g is not okay. He either knew the slur was not cool and didn’t care or he’s been a homophobic PoS until recently…
Yes, it is insulting to the millions of men who know better, but sadly, it’s also true. There are certain men who, unless they’re exceptionally close to their daughter, will Only listen to other men. So, if we want to ever come close to solving the problem and eliminating that word from their vocabulary, we sadly still need men like him to speak up. They don’t give a flying F about consequences from anyone other than their peer group.
I know too many white guys Matt’s age that think it’s perfectly fine to say to their sons to stop acting like a f*g, sissy or p*ssy. And some of them would probably only stop if they had a daughter who pointed out how offensive it is. And would think nothing of telling the story in public.
Have you told them to stop? It’s on all of us (but especially cis-het able bodied folks) to stop this shit. It’s hard, but necessary.
Oh please, there has to be a point when the excuse “I’m a product of my age” doesn’t apply. Matt was born in 1970, not 1870.
The “I’m a product of my age/generation” thing is just another way of saying “None of this has ever, or will ever, affect me and I am absolutely unwilling to care or learn.”
I can’t stand his dude-bro energy. On top of saying the slur, if he used the argument “honey, I said it in a movie!” He sounds like a real d-bag.
Aw Matty, we get it. You’re macho AND you’re self-deprecating. You’re horrible AND you’re humble about it. Some MAGA housewife somewhere surely has hearts in her eyes and will pay to see your new film.
Matt “father of daughters” Damon has always been trash. The Effie Brown incident alone is a big clue to how he really thinks and feels.
What an idiot. I mean, everyone has growing to do but his continued lack of self-awareness is just yikes.
Why did he admit to this?
Because he lives in such a bubble, he thinks this shows stunning growth on his part.
Such an ignorant comment
Everytime Matt opens his piehole…
I appreciate Ben more
I read this yesterday after seeing the headline, thinking, what F slur is he talking about? My mouth was actually agape when I then read this. I’m in my 50s, and haven’t heard anyone use this word casually in probably 30 years. I’ve never heard my husband, brother, or father EVER use it. The fact that he also relayed this as an amusing anecdote to try and show how he’s just some kind of fuddy duddy whose daughter has had to explain things to him is just gross.
Don’t wanna see or hear from him anymore.
I can’t believe he was a guest star in an episode of Will and Grace. I bet he didn’t dare use the f word on the set.
That part. The man has worked in the entertainment industry for decades. He knows better.
He was also in the Liberace movie called Behind the Candelabra, where he plays Michael Douglas’s lover. Don’t tell me he doesn’t know the history or power of this word. I imagine it’s the “I have gay friends” (doubt it) and “I’ve played a gay man so I’m not a homophobe” excuse?
I also wondered, “what’s he said on set”?
If he has used that language before on set, in the workplace, he could be sued for creating a hostile work environment.
IF he hasn’t used that language on set, it means he’s known it’s wrong.
Literally every time someone says “come on that was a joke”, it wasn’t.
You can take the Masshole out of Boston, but you’ll never take the Masshole out of the man….
Freddy I have never heard the term “Masshole” but man do I love it. 😂
“I grew up in a different age…” is such a bizarre argument. Like when Paula Deen was called out for using the n-word awhile ago. Okay, so you grew up in a different time, but you don’t LIVE in one NOW.
Why would you admit this?? Does he expect a pat on the back? WTF
I read that last quote in the article above and thought twice about commenting because just reading blurbs of an interview then reading the whole interview you realize how things can be taken out of context. But they are under paywall 🤷♀️so I’ll just say a big reason people liked Matt Damon was he kept his head down and just worked. For someone so smart he should have realized after all the backlash from mansplaining a couple of years ago he needs to just shut up and just talk about your work. Like someone said on Twitter Did Matt Damon just cancel himself?
I’m a year older than him, grew up in a biggish city in the Midwest, and just about everybody tossed around the “f” slur like it was nothing, especially guys. Everyone knew what it meant, of course, but I seldom heard anyone call an actual gay person the f-word ( at least not to their face). It was used mostly to insult a friend’s strength or manliness, the way they call each other p-words now. It was casual, ingrained homophobia the way using the p-word as an insult today is casual, ingrained misogyny. So I assume this is what Matt is saying when he said that it meant something different then? But man, where had he been the past 20-30 years? I can’t even hear the word now without cringing, so Matt must have been living in a horrible, homophobic bubble for decades.
PS None of these 1980-1990 guys would ever say the n-word. Because in the 80s and 90s racism was bad but homophobia hadn’t caught up. I don’t think you can assume one from the other.
PPS: For those saying they would have NEVER said the f-slur as a teenager in the 80s, good for you. But I’m imagining you’re engaging in some revisionist history. It’s better to admit you did bad things or had some
prejudiced attitudes back in the day, but learned and grew to be better. Talk to your kids about the casual, ingrained bias in the language they’re using today (eg. Fat phobia, sexism, classism) and get them to imagine how they’ll feel when they’re older.
I thought it was puzzling he’d use the word with his daughters. I could see maybe guys saying it to each other (at the time period he used it; now, not so much), but saying it at the dinner table with his kids struck me as quite weird.
I can’t really think of a context in which women would use it on each other or with other guys so the fact he used it around his daughters makes no sense to me.
Yeah I agree with you totally. I am just a handful of years younger than Matt Damon and is offensive as it is, the f word was tossed around a lot when I was a kid. I don’t think kids got the offensive nature of it at all then. It was just another “bad word” that kids used to rag on each other with, especially boys in sports. It was definitely not treated like a slur then, just like the r word was not. Both only became slurs in language since what, 2000ish? None of this is defending Matt D btw as the F word should have been cleansed from his palate years ago. However, it is likely what he was referring to as the time he grew up in. It’s gross but true. Time changes language.
But he was still using the word in 2021 for God’s sake. He just stopped using it 2 months ago. No excuses. The 90’s ended a long time ago.
I hear you, although let’s not cape for these guys. As you said, it was & is homophobia, so this whole “the application was different” is asinine. Yes, it was not used towards someone everyone KNEW was gay & they were not about to be physically attacked, but words are violence & they are used to keep people in line, threaten those who fit the category to stay closeted & keep the status quo of patriarchy.
I grew up the same way & I learned to never, ever say those guys wouldn’t use the n-word. No way I’m giving them that pass when they use the f-slur in public & wouldn’t use the n-word…in public.
Just a lesson I learned- I do not put blind trust & my own word on the line for the group think of white cis-men. I know we were socialized to, but girl, stop.
MC2: I agree, and I wasn’t trying to cape for them or make excuses, simply trying offering a possible explanation for Matt’s head-scratching comment that “it meant something different back then.” And you’re right that just because I ’d never heard them say the n-word doesn’t mean they never did – people do all sorts of things in private spaces, I just never heard it. But I still maintain that black-white racism was WAY less acceptable in the 80s than homophobia, and that the language people used reflected that. And I maintain that our prejudices can and do change as we grow, and that we can and do get better. Which is why it’s so shocking to me how late to the game Matt is on this. Even my elderly father dropped the anti-gay sentiment and verbiage decades ago
Shannon, we are very close in age then, I don’t know exact and wouldn’t say my exact anyway, but yep. I really feel your post. That was my 80’s and 90’s too. I know I used the word when I was still in high school, without a doubt. And yeah, where has he been the past 20-30 years. It’s just a stunning show of bubble-living, because we all learned as we went along.
I guarantee those guys saying the f word in the 80s/90s also used the n word. I don’t know where you got the impression that racism was unacceptable back then (umm, Boston), but I was there and that is revisionist history.
@Haylie: like I said, I grew up in a sort of big Midwestern city, so I’m sure things vary by area. But when I was a teen in the mid to late 80s I never heard the n-word bandied about in my high school or amongst my friends and acquaintances. People were prejudiced, for sure, but it was definitely not acceptable to voice it out loud nor to use certain forbidden words. (I remember being shocked the first time I heard someone in 10th grade openly disparaging black people using a Yiddish term, and that one time my mom’s friend said in a conspiratorial tone that she didn’t want to live near “the blacks,” so I think hearing the n-word would’ve really rocked me.) So yeah, I may have had led a sheltered and liberal childhood, but I really don’t think I’m engaging in revisionist history.
Layla Beans, I guess it depends on what your definition of slur is. You said it was a word meant to rag on each other with but it wasn’t thought of as a slur. I think of a slur as a word that is used to insulting refer to someone for a thing that is inherent in them and unchangeable: race, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion (though I suppose that’s technically changeable). And in that case, I’d say the f-word was always a slur. The definition was always the same, it was always meant to denigrate gay people as less than. Though I guess the “application,” as you mentioned was different when it was straight guys calling other straight guys that word as a way to insult them for doing something “gay.” But the fact that a word that meant “gay” could be used as an insult inherently makes it an anti-gay slur, even when it’s not used to threaten or attack a gay person to their face. If you were being called the f-word it meant you were acting weak, fragile, overly emotional, girly, precious, perverted, or disgusting/gross, as if all gay people were automatically all of those things all the time just by virtue of being gay, or being an f-word. Because I definitely heard straight guys and girls referring to gay people as f-words. Maybe not to their face (just like they wouldn’t call a black person the n-word to their face), because they knew it was wrong and insulting and hurtful, but definitely behind their back. And it meant the same things in that context. F-word=gay=a litany of negative traits. So I’m not even sure why Matt is trying to make any sort of deal about how it had a different “application,” if it always had the same meaning and was always meant as an anti-gay slur.
Trash. When he dumped Minnie Driver on Oprah, I lost all respect for him. I liked the Bourne movies (until that last one) so I tolerated him, but dude is just the worst. He keeps showing us who he is and like most white dudes, he’s forgiven for his bs.
This comment deserves more acknowledgement. You’re absolutely right about this, Simone.
How does he not know using a slur is wrong? The word “slur” in and of itself indicates that it is bad. Huh. I don’t get this.
What a moron. Dude seriously? Have you been living under a rock or something? I guess he knows he’ll never be cancelled for some reason.
It took real work on my part to get my own dad to stop using that word…in 1997. I cannot believe how completely tone-deaf and unacceptable it is that he was comfortable using this term anytime in the recent past. Canceled forever
The fact he made “jokes” using that word and NO ONE corrected him until his teenaged daughter did tells me a lot about the type of people he hangs with. He should have been scolded for using that word a long time ago…but wasnt??? I mean not even by his wife, friends, co-workers? NO ONE ?????
He does not hang around with people who would call him on it. Chris Hemsworth? Luke Hemsworth? Elsa Pataky? Ted Waitt (Ghislaine Maxwell’s ex who is one of his besties)? By design, he is the biggest star in his universe. He may be long term friends with Ben Affleck but Affleck does not have his box office. He is also separate from all the film and television industry people who post about BLM, LGBTQ issues and follow activist sm accounts. I think many other people in HW have actually tried to grow (as everyone should do), he just thinks he doesn’t have to.
I still remember his exaggerated standing ovation for brad Pitt at his first award show appearance after angelina left him after the airplane fight-that really felt gross to watch
Can you imagine in this day and age using that word, in front of your children? And then YOUR KID has to tell you why it’s wrong? He works in show business, he knows gay people, would he have used the word, even in a joking manner, to their faces? Of course not.
Also, does he have a publicist and does said person hate him?
He has been doing movies for 30 years. 30 years. It’s not that his publicist hates him, anyone with a high profile for 30 years should know better than to show his ass like that in an interview. Methinks this story came about because maybe his children are the only reality check he has and he found it so fascinating that someone called him out. Time to maybe stop hiring people who only tell you you are awesome. And maybe shut up for a while, (again).
and…….that’s a wrap in Matty D for me. Final nail in the coffin. He actually thinks people are going to applaud him for this. The utter stupidity to tell this story. 🤯
It’s the fact that he really thought he did something here. SMH. If he was still using that homophobic slur in 2021, no doubt he’s still using other slurs.
His daughter sounds like a wonderful kid.
Reporter to Matt Damon during the interview: “You sound very American right now”
Matt Damon: “Good, I am an American!”
Scene end
🤣
Nope nope nope nope nope. I had three boys, the first born in 1990. The words I had to wrestle out of them was retarded and gay (items, clothing, art, anything other than people). All the kids would say, ‘That’s so gay.’ Those were the only two words which took commitment on my part to extract from their vocabulary. But I was successful. I began to hear them correct those with whom they were gaming or just hanging out. But the F word has always been so obviously and overtly derogatory, we never had any issues with. Ever. To admit you only recently dropped it and are proud of that is laughable and embarrassing and character revealing in several ways. He really is an east coast arrogant douche canoe.
And regarding Shannon’s post above, I completely agree. Only the words I personally gravitated torward were curse words. I swore like a sailer because my mother was…well, my crazy mother lol. And she taught me homosexuality was a sin, so I refused to disparage that community. But I’d certainly tell her to f*ck off about it, and then she’d convulse. 😶
No excuse for his language or behaviour at times, period. However, it’s difficult to see the value in using terms that are offensive to other groups, e.g. douche. I appreciate that women casually throw this around as much as men, but it is offensive, or should be, to women in my opinion. Years from now we may realize as a society that it is a slur, as we are coming to understand is true of the word hysterical.
“I said it in Stuck on You.” Okay?? So? Fool.
There are quite a few words that were just part of our vocabulary growing up and they never really went away – until I had kids who point out every time I used it. It was just reflex, thoughtless. I’m very aware now of what comes out of my mouth, but a few years ago… appalling.
The F word has ALWAYS been a derogatory term and Matt’s generation in particular liked to use the slur to insult straight men, implying that they were not “manly” and were possibly homosexual. Just because it was used casually does NOT mean that the word had a completely different meaning. It did NOT. It was just more acceptable to denigrate homosexuals back then and to denigrate straight people by LIKENING them to homosexusls, back then, is all.
I hope Matt’s daughter talks to him about the D word for lesbians. I worry that it may be part of his vocabulary and he doesn’t know yet that it’s bad.
He knows.
Matt’s nostalgia for a bygone movie era (where everyone accepted white males as heroes, the only heroes) reminds me so much of last night’s episode on White Lotus. It satirizes the very rich guests in a Hawaiian resort. What a pity party!
“I don’t think you appreciate how tough things are for kids like Quinn right now,” a mother says of her teenage son, in the midst of a 2-week luxury vacation. “He is a straight, white, young man, and nobody has any sympathy for them right now.”
LOL i have to watch that show
Sounds like damage control ahead of some shocking revelation. #WeSeeWhoYouReallyAre
Annnnddddd, is he morphing into Leo DiCrapio??!!
Matty, I grew up same place you did, in the same time that you did. Telling us that the rude homophobic phrase was used in a different manner in Boston in the 70s, 80s, and 90s is a blatant lie. You are splitting hairs. Shame on you for not checking yourself previously.
He’s a lying liar. Even in the 40’s that word was hateful. Matt is a joke
I wish i could say I’m totally surprised by this story but I’m not. This guy is a walking stereotype of a white Boston douchebro so it wouldn’t even surprise me if he only recently stopped using the n-word to describe Black people. Isnt he friends with Mark Wahlberg? You know that famous Bostonian who tried a few years ago to get his record of blinding a Viatnamese man and throwing rocks at black kids while calling them the n word cleared so that he could become a volunteer cop?
Matt Damon, Marky Mark and Ben Affleck are all ass-hats.
Yep. It’s taken more seriously now, but it’s definitely still very much alive. Even allies sometimes substitute those more obvious slurs with euphemisms that are related to a person’s sexual orientation. It’s an attempt at creating plausible deniability. Much like DaBaby and TI, when confronted about what they said they’ll try to say that it’s really about a lack of class, protecting youth, reverse discrimination or some other bs. It’s not about homophobia because there are acceptable LGBTQ people to them. They often have protectors closer to them in age, or who happen to also be straight or the same gender, or who have something else in common. So it’s not always safe for us in the community to say anything about it.
Simone you’re so right and I’m sorry you still have to deal with this.
Matt Damon is an idiot and an asshole. He keeps showing us who he is. F*ck. Him.
Matt’s rebuttle will be: “I love gay people. I’m the least homophobic person you’ll meet, because, you know, I played a homosexual in Behind the Candelabra. If I played a gay guy, no way would I use an intended gay slur. It was just harmless locker room talk, you know, like grab ’em by the p- — oops. Never mind. Forget I said that.”
Matt Damon got something done to his face but I can’t pinpoint what it is exactly. Hmm..
I’m 53 and that word wasn’t ok in the 80’s either.
It had the same meaning then.
It was a homophobic slur.
People did use it more, but it was always used in a derogatory manner. It never had a different meaning
Just like the N word, it’s always been a racist term, I never would have thought to ever use it. I have never said it.
What was super common was the ableist language, like l@me, t@rd, ect. Like really common. I’m trying REALLY REALLY hard to erase that from my vocabulary.
He’s a closet asshole. I say it all the time. My close friend works the SBFF and Cinema Club here. She manages the talent thru the event. Sunday they had a showing of Stillwater and a Q&A. She said he was an ass. Now she has worked with everyone and rarely has a bad thing to say about people. She was done with him. Affleck’s mess is out there for everyone to see. To me Damon is worse. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.