Matt Damon has drawn criticism on social media after he recently revealed that he stopped using a homophobic slur a few months ago after his daughter told him it was "dangerous."
The actor,who stars in the new film Stillwater, revealed in an interview with the UK's Sunday Times that he retired the word just "months ago" after he made a "joke" involving what his daughter calls the "f-slur for a homosexual."
"I made a joke - months ago - and got a treatise from my daughter," the 50-year-old actor said. "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," he recounted.
"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 continued. The actor has three daughters aged 15, 12, and 10, with his wife of 16 years, Luciana Barroso.
Backlash on Social Media
Damon's comments sparked outrage on Twitter with users slamming the Oscar-winning star for his lack of awareness and failure to realize the "f-word" was a homophobic slur until a few months ago.
"I've lost some respect for Matt Damon for two reasons: 1. Being a 51-year-old Harvard-educated person who only realized using homophobic slurs was a bad thing *months* ago; and 2. Being foolish enough to think that was a cute story he should share with the world," wrote one user.
"If Matt Damon's using homophobic slurs at the dinner table in 2021, you can't tell me he's not using racist slurs too," commented another.
Here are some of the other reactions:
This is not the first time the actor has sparked controversy with his comments. During the filming in 2015 of Project Greenlight - a documentary series that features first-time filmmakers - Damon was blasted for disregarding his African-American producer Effie Brown's concerns about needing diversity on set.
Brown was advocating the hiring of a white woman and a Vietnamese-American man as co-directors of the Greenlight-backed film. But Damon disagreed with the choice, telling Brown, "When we're talking about diversity, you do it in the casting of the film, not in the casting of the show." He later apologized for his comment, according to Variety.
