Apart from being a successful Hollywood superstar, Matt Damon who is a Harvard graduate, is considered one of the sane and reasonable voices in the industry. The actor who has had a steady and committed relationship with his wife Luciana Barroso, is also a staunch family man and a devoted father to his teenaged daughters.
Damon is known to support inspirational narratives through his characters and has often been part of films that have propagated powerful and positive messages. One of his movies though did not find favor with his daughter who brought the celebrity down to earth for quoting a controversial dialogue from it.
Matt Damon Was Accused Of Being Homophobic By His Daughter
They say children are the best teachers and Matt Damon once learnt that the hard way with his teenaged daughter. The actor was called up during a dinner table talk with his family when he jokingly used the “f” slur to refer to a homos**ual person. Though Damon’s comment was in reference to his character’s dialogue in the film Stuck on You, the star received harsh flak from his daughter who schooled him on the impropriety of using the slur.
“I made a joke, months ago, and got a treatise from my daughter. She left the table. 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.”
The Good Will Hunting Star who had originally rejected being part of the gay romance Brokeback Mountain, spoke about the pride he felt for his daughter’s awareness and empathy and elaborated on the need for the younger generation to stand up and lead society in the right direction.
Matt Damon Regretted Doing The Great Wall
Matt Damon’s daughters have constantly been their father’s conscience on multiple occasions including being brutally honest about his choice of films. In 2016, Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal starred in The Great Wall, a story about two European mercenaries who are imprisoned by the Chinese Emperor in The Great Wall of China and join forces with the local army to protect the kingdom from destruction. The film received positive responses at the box office, making over 350 million dollars worldwide while filmed on a 150 million dollar budget.
But not all opinions of the movie were favorable. While Damon and filmmaker Zhang Yimou were criticized for making a film that glorified the concept of the “white savior”, Damon himself was dissatisfied with the way the script had panned out. Speaking of the original ideas that did not make the cut due to monetary complications, the actor said,
“I was like, ‘This is exactly how disasters happen, It doesn’t cohere. It doesn’t work as a movie. That’s as s***ty as you can feel creatively, I think. I hope to never have that feeling again.”
Damon went on to further confess that he regretted doing the film as he felt it was doomed right from the outset. He also mentioned that he receives flak from his daughters even today for being a part of the film.
Source: The Sunday Times
