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Matt Damon admits he recently stopped using homophobic slur after a ‘long, beautiful treatise’ from his daughter

Not that anybody asked. The real question is why he even volunteered this information in the first place.

By Dana Gerber Globe Staff,Updated August 2, 2021, 2:34 p.m.
Matt Damon said in an interview with the Sunday Times that he was using a homophobic slur until just months ago, when one of his daughters educated him on the word's dangers.Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

In a bizarre overshare, actor Matt Damon just admitted that he only recently stopped using the “f-slur for a homosexual,” at his daughter’s behest.

Damon, 50, said in an interview with the U.K.’s Sunday Times published Sunday that he stopped using the derogatory term “months ago” after one of his four daughters chastised him.

“I made a joke, months ago, and got a treatise from my daughter. She left the table,” he told The Sunday Times. “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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The Oscar-winner, who stars as a gruff Oklahoman in the recently released film “Stillwater,” added that the word “was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application.”

The subject of Harvey Weinstein also came up in the interview. In 2017, when accusations against Weinstein for sexual assault were first coming to the surface, Damon commented to Deadline that “as the father of four daughters, this is the kind of sexual predation that keeps me up at night.” The statement earned criticism because, some argued, men should consider sexual assault reprehensible even if they don’t have daughters.

“I understand. It’s a fair point. Anybody should be offended by that behavior,” he said to The Sunday Times.

Damon added that he’s now less willing to be open when speaking to the media, noting that he feels his every statement is parsed to “get the best headline possible.”

“Maybe this shift is a good thing,” he said. “So I shut the [expletive] up more.”

Clearly not enough.

Damon’s use of the homophobic slur — and needing his daughter to educate him on its offensiveness — caused a Twitter storm, with people scratching their heads as to why the “Good Will Hunting” actor would admit this transgression, much less commit it.

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Dana Gerber can be reached at dana.gerber@globe.com. Follow her @danagerber6.

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