Culture

Matt Damon, A 50-Year-Old, Says His Daughter Told Him To Stop Using The F-Slur Just “Months Ago”

Today in celebrities sharing things they probably shouldn't.

by Merryana Salem  2 August 2021
Matt Damon

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In a potentially too-candid interview, Matt Damon has admitted he only stopped using the f-slur after his daughter wrote him a “treatise” on why he shouldn’t.

In the interview, published in The Sunday Times yesterday, Damon touches on a wide range of topics from using homophobic slurs at home to superhero films, discussing his disdain for the way franchises have changed what’s profitable in cinema.

“It made the most profitable movie, one that could travel around the world,” said Damon. “And if you want a movie to travel and play big, you want the least amount of cultural confusion. So there is the rise of the superhero movie, right? They’re easy for everyone.”

This is an interesting take from someone off the back of filming Deadpool 2, Thor Ragnarok, and Thor: Love and Thunder. Damon also cut his franchise teeth on Jason Bourne and Ocean’s Eleven, which aren’t exactly a far cry from the easy-travelling qualities of a superhero film.

But it’s the last few lines of the interview that has people scratching their heads. As a final anecdote, Damon reveals he only recently stopped using a homophobic slur, because one of his four daughters told him to.

“I said, ‘Come on, that’s a joke! I say it in the movie Stuck on You’” shared Damon.  “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.”

If you’re baffled as to why a Harvard-educated professional is candidly admitting he used homophobic slurs around his children up until a few months ago, you’re not alone. In the very same interview, Damon labels himself a liberal, and describes shooting his latest project, Stillwater, in conservative states and being treated with suspicion by locals. “And I would be too if a Hollywood liberal said he was going to do a movie about them,” he said.

Damon even expresses awareness that what he says may be made into headlines, as if this sentiment somehow alleviates the weight of admitting his daughter had to teach him not to use a gay slur. “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],” he said.

Perhaps next time, Matt Damon should think of better lyrics or at least ones that don’t see him bragging about learning not to use a homophobic slur at the age of 50 from his own child.