Matt Damon has revealed that he stopped saying the “faggot” slur after his daughter wrote him a treatise explaining how it’s problematic.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Damon discussed how his outlook changed during a dinner with his daughter.
“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 said.
“I made a joke, months ago, and I 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.”
Alongside changing his viewpoint on the offensive word, Damon also discussed his past controversial comments regarding the #MeToo movement.
Back in 2017, during the start of Weinstein’s sexual assault allegations he said, “As the father of four daughters, this is the kind of sexual predation that keeps me up at night.”
Soon after he made his statement, people criticised the 50-year-old actor for only stating that fathers should be worried about the producers’ allegations.
When referring to his backlash he said, “I understand. It’s a fair point. Anybody should be offended by that behaviour.”
He then went on to say that the media and journalism have changed over the years, which has made him become more aware of what he says.
“20 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.”
Related: Billy Eichner shares his thoughts on comedians using the term ‘faggot’.
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