Matt Damon says he doesn’t ‘use slurs of any kind’ after backlash

Matt Damon has issued a lengthy statement after copping criticism for an eyebrow-raising gay slur confession he made in a recent interview.

Matt Damon has hit back at backlash over an interview he gave revealing he “retired the f-slur” just “months ago” after a dressing down from his daughter.

The blockbuster star, 50, released a lengthy statement to Variety today saying he doesn’t use “slurs of any kind”, adding that his comments in The Sunday Times which went viral yesterday “led many to assume the worst”.

“During a recent interview, I recalled a discussion I had with my daughter where I attempted to contextualise 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,” Damon said in the newly released statement.

“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.

“To my admiration and pride, she was extremely articulate about the extent to which that word would have been painful to someone in the LGBTQ+ community regardless of how culturally normalised it was. I not only agreed with her but thrilled at her passion, values and desire for social justice.”

Matt Damon has hit back at backlash over his comments. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

It came after Damon told The Times he dropped “the f-slur” in conversation while “at the table” with his family, when one of his four daughters told him off.

“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 told The Times.

“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!’,” Damon added, referencing the 2003 film in which he plays a conjoined twin with Greg Kinnear.

“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.”

Giving further context in his statement to Variety, Damon said he had never directed the word at anyone before, and that his daughter’s treatise was not a “personal awakening.”

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Matt Damon gave the brutally honest interview with The Sunday Times. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

“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,” Damon said.

“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. To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.”

Damon’s initial comments were met with significant backlash online yesterday, with many flocking to social media to say they’d “lost respect” for the actor.

So Matt Damon just figured out "months ago", by way of a "treatise" from a child, that he's not supposed to say the word f*ggot.

Months ago.

Months ago. pic.twitter.com/g8MRR39yVR

— Travon Free (@Travon) August 1, 2021

The fact that Matt Damon’s daughter had to explain to him that saying a slur is wrong is insane pic.twitter.com/KeOIlxRZP8

— Cedrica (@iamcedrica) August 1, 2021

As a member of the press, I like when celebrities talk to the press, but it's always illuminating to hear the stories that folks like Liam Neeson or Matt Damon think are humanizing and charming, but actually reveal insulation and isolation (among other unsavory stuff) instead. https://t.co/OZzDlyW72O

— Daniel Fienberg (@TheFienPrint) August 1, 2021

I’ve lost some respect for Matt Damon for two reasons:

1. Being a 51-year-old Harvard-educated person who only realized using homophobic slurs was a bad thing *months* ago; and

2. Being foolish enough to think that was a cute story he should share with the world. pic.twitter.com/WtudX2fGtb

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) August 1, 2021

Damon’s interview was part of a wider feature story about the changing face of masculinity, as well as the #MeToo movement which spawned in 2017 following allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein.

When reports were first emerging about Weinstein, Damon said at the time: “As the father of four daughters, this is the kind of sexual predation that keeps me up at night.”

The comments were met with criticism at the time, with many pointing out his role as a father shouldn’t be the only reason he was angered.

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Matt Damon and his wife, Luciana Barroso, parent four daughters together. Picture: Al Powers/Powers Imagery/Invision/AP

He told The Times, “I understand (the anger),” he said. “It’s a fair point. Anybody should be offended by that behaviour.

“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.”

The Jason Bourne actor shares three girls Isabella, 15, Gia, 12, and Stella, 10, with his wife of 16 years, Luciana Barroso. The actor is also a stepfather to Barroso’s 22-year-old daughter, Alexia, from a previous relationship.

Originally published as Matt Damon says he doesn’t ‘use slurs of any kind’ after backlash