Matt Damon has said that he only stopped using the word fag/faggot in reference to gay people after his daughter asked him to stop doing so a few months ago.
Damon, 50, gave an interview to the UK’s Sunday Times yesterday in which he talked about his career, new movie Stillwater, and fatherhood.
“The word that my daughter calls the ‘f-slur for a homosexual’ was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application,” Damon told the British outlet.
“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.”
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Damon has four daughters with his wife, Luciana Barroso. They are aged between 10 and 22. He didn’t say which daughter had reprimanded him over his language.
It’s unsure what he means by the “f-slur” having “a different application” when he was younger. Although slang for a cigarette in the UK, it’s been a pretty standard term of anti-gay abuse in the US, where Damon was born and raised, for decades.
Damon’s surprising admission provoked plenty of comments online. Among those to criticize him was comic and actor Billy Eichner.
Imagine this headline about any other derogatory ethnic/racial/religious etc slur being used in 2021. People would be up in arms and rightfully so. But you’re still allowed to be homophobic in this fake-woke industry. HAPPY PRIDE!!! 🌈🌈🌈🌈
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) August 1, 2021
In a widely-liked tweet, Eichner said, “I want to know what word Matt Damon has replaced f****t with.”
I want to know what word Matt Damon has replaced f****t with.
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) August 1, 2021
Remember when the joke was that Ben Affleck was the dumb one and Matt Damon was the smart one? Because one is dating J-Lo and the other is spending the year of our lord Dolly Parton 2021 bragging about how he just stopped saying “fag.”
— Jaclyn Moore (@JaclynPMoore) August 1, 2021
Many expressed surprise that Damon thought this a good story to share.
why would matt damon freely share that lol
— Craig Bro Dude (@CraigSJ) 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
Others referenced classic Damon roles.
Matt Damon’s daughter in her bedroom writing a treatise on why it was problematic to beat Dickie Greenleaf to death with an oar
— Anthony Oliveira (@meakoopa) August 1, 2021
I’m shocked, absolutely fucking shocked. pic.twitter.com/bIMHWgT3Rm
— Joey R Johnson 👨👨👦🏳️🌈 (@Johnson__joey) August 1, 2021
Imagine making multiple movies with Gus Van Sant and this somehow never coming up.
— Tim Carvell (@timcarvell) August 1, 2021
Related: What’s wrong with Michael Douglas & Matt Damon getting naked?
Elsewhere in the interview, which praised the actor as potentially, “the last of Hollywood’s leading men”, Damon also commented on how he felt journalism had changed over the last couple of decades. He said that quotes were often now taken out of context to create clickbait headlines, and this had made him more likely to keep his mouth shut.
“I just think that there’s a tendency now… “ he began. “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.”
Maybe this is one of those times he’ll be wishing he kept his mouth shut.
Matt Damon arriving home to check Twitter pic.twitter.com/XV2l08JkK8
— Tom Reagan’s Hat (@RufusTSuperfly) August 1, 2021
UPDATE August 03, 2021
Following worldwide media reports about the Sunday Times interview, Matt Damon issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter denying he had used the f-word in his personal life.
“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,” he said.
“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 normalized it was. I not only agreed with her but thrilled at her passion, values and desire for social justice.”
He added, “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. 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.”
Tad
I’ve known for a long time that once the word ni**er finally was banned from civil society that fa**ot was going to take its place as the last hate-filled expletive for bigots and assholes everywhere. What I can’t believe is that someone like Damon who has worked in H’wood for decades now, would have still used the word thinking it was OK. And in front of his kids, too. It’s true, you have to be carefully taught. And white straight men continue to show that what they teach best is ignorance, intolerance, exclusion, bigotry and hate.
PhillyProud
In censored social media, I have found that racists will use the word “savages” to replace the N word. They think they’re so smart. Eye roll. F****t has also become pretty unacceptable.
LumpyPillows
Only banned for white people based on what I hear walking in the city, riding the bus…
PhillyProud
I read somewhere that it was f*ck word. I’m floored that he still used f****t. Really. I thought he was more of an ally. I’m not surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. I’ve got straight, cis-gendered, white male people in my life who slip once in a while. Takes a long time to build trust and just a second to destroy it.
Cam
Which means he was still using it in front of his daughter.
Kangol2
It sounds like Damon’s use of the “f” word wasn’t an occasional slip but a regular feature, at least at home, and thankfully one of his children stepped up and checked his casual homophobia. But I have to ask, why does it take a child to stop a supposed-very smart, very rich 50 year old White man, from a privileged background (his father was a stockbroker, and his mother a college professor, and Damon went to Harvard and belonged one of its elite private clubs), from using a slur the vast majority of people walking around today know is wrong?
Even most homophobes know using that term is offensive and hateful. It makes me wonder if he also has used the n-word and other racist, misogynistic, etc. terms at home, and if that poor child is going to have to do more schooling of this apparently clueless, toxic man. Even his pseudo-apology is weak. Of course he won’t be condemned as harshly as if he were a Black rapper, etc., but really, Matt Damon, WTF?
Chrisk
“Of course he won’t be condemned as harshly as if he were a Black rapper”
First off Rappers use Fa**ot all the time and no ones busted them for saying it. Context is everything though. Damon using fa*got is not the same as associating gay people with aids who will die in 2 weeks and don’t bother coming to his concerts. If we start comparing Damon to Da-shithead then we’ve lost the battle.
I remember people like Paris Hilton saying “that’s gay” which I think this is more about and it caught on big time back in the 2000’s. Do I think she and others are homophobes and full of hate? Nope. Clueless absolutely.
Donston
The thing with Paris wasn’t “that’s gay”. It was her getting caught spewing a bit of a homophobic/judge-y rant.
The odd thing with Matt is that he felt the need to share this story for what? Also, that he was constantly using the word “f@ggot” around his daughter. Because she wasn’t writing a letter after one slip-up.
spiralx
Very difficult right now to avoid the conclusion that he just didn’t care, or want to bother.
Donston
I don’t know if he thought this was a “cute story” about how smart and progressive his daughter is or a story that’s supposed to highlight that he’s “evolving”. I don’t know. But it’s kinda disturbing that someone who tries to present himself as “progressive” and who has played “queer” characters a few times is just constantly using “f@ggot” around his little kid, so much so that she writes a letter to get him to stop. I don’t even know anybody who constantly uses that word around little kids. Weird shit.
Cam
It reminds me of when Mitt Romney and his family told the story of strapping their dogs kennel to the roof of the car and the terrified dog got upset and had diarrhea all over the roof of the car.
They thought it was an adorable family tail and the rest of us looked at it as animal cruelty.
Same here, yay for his daughter, but I’m thinking “Ok, so you were saying so much around her that she actually saw it as a problem, and didn’t feel like she could talk to you about it, she had to write a long involved thing on it”
humble charlie
He’s an actor not a genius or a moralist. For the most part he just repeats words somebody else writes for him to say and then poses suitably for the camera.
cuteguy
Too bad Ellen is a pariah now otherwise he’d be on her show using her as a defensive shield
TheDefiler
Amen. Considering herself an insider too so she’d surely forgive him on behalf of us all. Also pity the term is typically the slur directed at men — would allow us to test whether it’d be another case of fatheaded overreach or a, in Melania fashion, “I don’t really care…”
Heywood Jablowme
Billy says “I want to know what word Matt Damon has replaced f****t with.”
“poofter”?
LumpyPillows
I really like Matt, but this is disappointing that he didn’t figure this out sooner. I still like him.
spiralx
Very. And I don’t know him, so I don’t like or dislike him.
But as an actor, I feel a lot less respect than I did. A bit like Mel Gibson.
So good in what he does, quite often, but so flawed and limited as a person.
LumpyPillows
Mel is so much worse.
BlueStateMan
Please look at Damon’s history. He has been homophobic for a long time. This is just his way of “getting ahead of the story” in the event the letter his daughter wrote gets into the wrong hands. Now we have his spin on it, which should make all of us in the LGBTQ community feel better about him and give him a pass. Sorry, but that won’t work with me. Straight men use that gay slur when they are trying to put each other down because in their field of view it is the worst thing you could call another straight man. Example, the pro golfer that missed a putt and called himself a F****t because it was the worst thing he could think of to describe his inadequacy.
Cam
Well, cancel him. He’s a white male anyway, why does he still exist?
Cam
@Cam (Stolen Name)
Awwww, the right wing troll is trying to play victim.
We get it sweetie, you are terrified that people are getting held responsible for their actions.
Oh, and you’ve now tried to post as me around 10 times today. I’m guessing you’ve been writing my name all over your hand and have pictures of me in your room. Your trolling is sad and boring.
SDR94103
career ending?
Fahd
Pretty surprising that he turns out to be such an a**hole. New England, ivy league, profiled in Vanity Fair, played gay roles and still using the word in 2021, but his daughter got him to stop? You can’t make this stuff up. To think I enjoyed The Talented Mr. Ripley, but this is so egregious, that he is going on my “do not watch” list.
I hope he doesn’t try the “some of my best friends are gay” defense as this story continues to blow up. He couldn’t possibly have any gay friends if this is how he’s been behaving.
Just deplorable
PerhapsYesNoMaybe
Agreed.
DuMaurier
The article is behind a paywall so I feel I’m flying slightly blind here. The assumption seems to be he was regularly going around flinging the f-word around and targeting people (presumably behind their backs) with it; the specific example I’m seeing is that he repeated a joke from a movie where the word was used and he didn’t censor it; i.e., he said it straight out and didn’t substitute “f-word”.
Now, if I were to quote a Black comic’s joke from a routine that used a certain racial slur that he would be ALLOWED TO USE, I would say “n-word” when I got to that part. I know some people who wouldn’t see why that was necessary; “I’m just quoting what HE said!”
So I don’t know. Damon actually made it worse with the part about the slur being common in his youth and supposedly not meaning what it means. Because that’s the part that makes it SEEM like he was going around saying it all the time without knowing its meaning; that would be ridiculous, and I’m not sure it’s what he intended to say.
Mr. Stadnick
He’s from New England and the use of F****t is very common. I grew up there and can tell you it was used and is used all the time by people you would think are intelligent and aware people. No they are as hate filled as evah!
MISTERJETT
only recently?
PerhapsYesNoMaybe
I’ll try to stop using the term d-ckhead when Matt Damon comes up in conversation but he’s making it awfully difficult. /s
kingster59
i wonder if he calls his bestie, george clooney, f……?
FridM
Breeders are just full of hate. The only thing that they’re good for is to make more gay people to help brighten the world. What goes around… I call them M F C**ts. I don’t care…it just makes me feel better…
searchcz
He’s calling it faulty reporting. Says his only use of that word was in character.
jackscott
Not a fan of his.
BaltoSteve
As one of his contemporaries, I call BS on this, “The word that my daughter calls the ‘f-slur for a homosexual’ was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application,” It meant exactly the same then as it does now when used by “Guys.” It is a derogatory word for homosexual that when applied to straight guys, it is meant as an insult that questions their masculinity and physical abilities. Period.
Essie
I canceled Matt Damon a long time ago, after he “mansplained” to a Black woman about diversity. I decided he was an arrogant bigot and didn’t deserve my time or money. This is the first time I’ve stopped and read anything about him since then and I’m not surprised he is also a homophobe. Unfortunately, he won’t be canceled by the white brigade in H’Wood because he is one of them and they will continue to pay him millions to make their movies.