Matt Damon responds to ‘cancel culture’ years after ‘f-slur’ controversy
Matt Damon has given his thoughts on 'cancel culture', which he says will 'follow you to the grave'.
The 55-year-old made a recent appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, alongside his friend and Good Will Hunting and The Rip co-star, Ben Affleck, when he was asked for his opinion on 'cancel culture'.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, 'cancel culture' is a movement, primarily on social media, where people 'completely reject and stop supporting someone because they have said or done something that offends you'.
Rogan offered his definition as being 'this idea that one thing you said or one thing you did, and now we’re going to exaggerate that to the fullest extent and cast you out of civilisation for life'.
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And Damon seemed to share the podcaster's consensus, as he also addressed its indefinite nature.
"In perpetuity," the actor said. “Because I bet some of those people would have preferred to go to jail for 18 months or whatever, and then come out and say, ‘I paid my debt. Like, we’re done. Like, can we be done?’ The thing about that getting kind of excoriated, publicly like that, it just never ends.
"The thing about that – getting kind of excoriated, [and] publicly like that – [is that] it just never ends. It just will follow you to the grave."
In 2021, Damon faced some criticism after he'd revealed in an interview with The Sunday Times that he'd stopped using the f-slur 'months ago' when his daughter talked to him about 'how that word is dangerous'.
At the time, the Bourne star told the publication: "I made a joke, months ago, and 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."
In a follow-up statement with Variety, Damon provided further clarification, stating that he had never used the word 'in my personal life' and that he doesn't 'use slurs of any kind'.
However, he went on to say that he understood how the interview had 'led many to assume the worst'.
"During a recent interview, I recalled a discussion I had with my daughter where I attempted to contextualise for her the progress that has been made – though by no means completed – since I was growing up in Boston and, as a child, heard the word ‘f*g’ used on the street before I knew what it even referred to," he said.
"I explained that that word was used constantly and casually and was even a line of dialogue in a movie of mine as recently as 2003; she, in turn, expressed incredulity that there could ever have been a time where that word was used unthinkingly.
"To my admiration and pride, she was extremely articulate about the extent to which that word would have been painful to someone in the LGBTQ+ community, regardless of how culturally normalized it was. I not only agreed with her but thrilled at her passion, values and desire for social justice."
He continued: "I have never called anyone ‘f****t’ in my personal life, and this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening. I do not use slurs of any kind.
"I have learned that eradicating prejudice requires active movement toward justice rather than finding passive comfort in imagining myself ‘one of the good guys’.
"And given that open hostility against the LGBTQ+ community is still not uncommon, I understand why my statement led many to assume the worst. To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.”
Topics: Matt Damon, Joe Rogan
James Moorhouse