Matt Damon Insists He Never Used ‘F-Slur’ Amid Backlash: ‘I Stand With The LGBTQ+ Community’
Matt Damon said he has never called anyone ‘f****t’ in his ‘personal life,’ in a statement, after he talked about the regular use of the word in his area while growing up in a recent interview.
Matt Damon, 50, is defending himself after talking about how he stopped using the “f-slur for a homosexual” only months ago in a recent interview. The actor clarified the remarks he made to the U.K’s Sunday Times, which was published over the weekend, in a statement that was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. It all started when he was talking about how the offensive term was “commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application” in the interview, and then stirred up controversy for saying he used the term in a joke “months ago” before his daughter helped him realize it was a mistake.
“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,” the statement reportedly began. “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.”
“I have never called anyone ‘f****t’ in my personal life and this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening,” the statement continued. “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.”
Before his statement was released, Matt became a trending topic on social media sites like Twitter as the controversial interview was shared and people had their opinions. Those people included celebs like actor Billy Eichner, who tweeted, “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
GLAAD also released a statement about Matt’s words. “The conversations that have arisen after Matt Damon’s original interview and subsequent remarks today are an important reminder that this word, or any word that aims to disparage and disrespect LGBTQ people, has no place in mainstream media, social media, classrooms, workplaces, and beyond,” said Anthony Allen Ramos, GLAAD’s Head of Talent “There needs to be accountability at a time when anti-LGBTQ slurs remain rampant today and can fuel discrimination and stereotypes, especially when used by those outside of the community to defame or describe LGBTQ people.”