Matt Damon gave the brutally honest interview with The Sunday Times. Photo / Getty Images
Matt Damon gave the brutally honest interview with The Sunday Times. Photo / Getty Images
Up until "months ago", Matt Damon has revealed he didn't see an issue with using a homophobic slur as a joke.
The blockbuster star, 50, told the Sunday Times he dropped "the f-slur" in conversation while "at the table" with his family, when one of his four daughters told himoff.
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.
"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."
The personal story, which Damon was honest about unprompted, 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 backlash, with many pointing out his role as a father shouldn't be the only reason he was angered.
He told the Times in his recent interview "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*** up more."
