Ellen DeGeneres Hears Matt Damon Clarify Comments About Gay Actors

One thing is certain about Ellen DeGeneres: if she believes someone needs to be heard, she will give them that opportunity. Ellen DeGeneres gave Matt Damon that opportunity when it came to comments he had made earlier about diversity and sexuality. She made it clear she believes in Damon after the interview via Twitter.

I know Matt Damon is a good guy. I was happy to help set the record straight (or gay. Up to you) http://t.co/aDxt9o6FCn

— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) September 28, 2015

Prior to seeing Ellen DeGeneres on her eponymous talk show, Damon has been making the rounds, promoting his latest movie The Martian.

He told the Guardian, “I think you’re a better actor the less people know about you, period. And sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether you’re straight or gay, people shouldn’t know anything about your sexuality because that’s one of the mysteries that you should be able to play.”

To be sure, his comments landed him in considerable hot water. However, Damon explained to Ellen DeGeneres that in speaking to the Guardian, he was trying to underline that actors should really keep their personal lives as private as possible. He admitted that when he and friend Ben Affleck were first trying to get established in Hollywood and had written the script for Good Will Hunting, insinuations were rife that the duo were gay “because it was two guys who wrote the script,” according to Just Jared.

While talking to Ellen DeGeneres, Damon noted that he and Affleck were reluctant to even address the issue because he felt that they were just trying to make it as actors and screenwriters. He had, days earlier during the filming of Project Greenlight, expressed concerns that changing the rules of the reality screenwriting competition to prioritize diversity would undermine the principles that the show was supposed to be about giving someone the reward for winning the competition based on merit alone.

That conversation, initially started by producer Effie Brown when she expressed reservations about the one black character in a particular script was a prostitute that was hit by her white pimp, saw Damon stating that the competition was not about diversity, but about awarding someone the win based on merit alone. Entertainment Weekly reported about the controversy and Damon’s comments on September 16.

Damon later apologized for the comments, noting that he was sorry that some were offended by his comments, but that he was glad to have contributed to ongoing discussions about diversity. During his time with Ellen DeGeneres, Damon attempted to clarify what he was saying about the importance of actors as a whole maintaining some degree of mystery and emphasized that he was not trying to say that openly gay actors should return to the closet.

“I was just trying to say actors are more effective when they’re a mystery, right?” Damon told Ellen DeGeneres during their pretaped interview, according to Entertainment Weekly. “And somebody picked it up and said I said gay actors should get back in the closet. Which is like, I mean it’s stupid, but it is painful when things get said that you don’t believe. You know what I mean? And then it gets represented that that’s what you believe.”

The Daily Beast, however, was eager to rake Damon over the coals in spite of his efforts to make things right. In an op-ed piece, writer Kevin Fallon says that Matt Damon should simply stop talking before things go from bad to worse from him, noting that in discussing the aftermath of Affleck’s and Damon’s win for Good Will Hunting, the duo felt they had to defend themselves from suppositions that they might be gay. Damon said he did not want to feel like he had to deny anything because he had many friends who identified as gay.

“Which was then really deeply offensive,” Damon said, according to the Daily Beast’s citation from his interview in the Guardian. “I don’t want to, like [imply] it’s some sort of disease—then it’s like I’m throwing my friends under the bus.”

In meeting with Ellen DeGeneres, though, Damon will have likely undone some of the damage that his previous comments may have caused. Ellen DeGeneres, for her part, was welcoming to Damon and, based on her Twitter comments alone, very supportive. The Ellen DeGeneres interview with Damon is set to air today.

http://ellentube.com/videos/0_5gpztd1k

[Photo courtesy of thefix.ninemsn.com.au]