Entertainment
Bill Maher defends Matt Damon following backlash over homophobic F-slur: ‘Why is this guy always in the doghouse?’
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Bill Maher has spoken out in defence of Matt Damon after the actor received backlash over a homophobic slur, describing him as ‘one of the most likeable guys in Hollywood’.
Earlier this month, Matt, 50, sparked outrage when he suggested that he only ‘retired’ the F-slur ‘months ago’ after being reprimanded by one of his daughters.
Following the criticism, the Good Will Hunting actor later released a statement saying: ‘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.’
While speaking on his political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill, 65, defended Matt, asking: ‘Why is this guy always in the doghouse with the online hall monitors of righteousness?’
‘It is a phenomenon that truly fascinates me, that every couple of years Matt Damon, one of the most likeable guys in Hollywood with impeccable liberal credentials, is again flailing around in cancel culture quicksand,’ the TV host said.
Referring to the conversation about the homophobic slur, Bill said: ‘It’s not always meant as a slur, but it’s wrong, yes, of course.’
Bill said Matt is in ‘cancel culture quicksand’. (Picture: Getty Images/Real Time with Bill Maher/PA Wire)
Bill remarked that in his opinion, ‘there are too many people in this country who are motivated not by what they really believe, but by what will get Twitter to react to them with likes and retweets’, adding: ‘That’s called bad faith.’
When he made his original controversial remarks to The Sunday Times, Matt said that the F-slur ‘was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application’.
‘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,’ he said.
The actor then added: ‘I said, “I retire the F-slur!” I understood.’
Matt’s latest film, Stillwater, is loosely based on the story of Amanda Knox, who spent nearly four years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of her roommate, Mereditch Kercher.
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Amanda recently hit out against the film, saying that it ‘fictionalizes’ her ‘and this story’.
‘By fictionalizing away my innocence, my total lack of involvement, by erasing the role of the authorities in my wrongful conviction, [director, Tom] McCarthy reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person,’ she said.
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