Matt Damon has been under fire recently for gun use in the popular film Jason Bourne . It’s safe to say that actor Tyson Beckford is not a fan of people who don’t stick to their word. TMZ stopped the actor , and he let his feelings be known about Damon’s image as gun-toting action hero Jason Bourne.
Right now, Damon’s Bourne franchise is topping the box office, but according to Tyson, he’s a hypocrite for having an anti-gun stance while making money as an action star.
The conversation started out innocently enough, when the TMZ reporter asked how Tyson felt over Damon’s pay for the latest Bourne film. It’s said that Damon made $25 million for reprising his role as Jason Bourne. It’s a typical Hollywood paycheck, but the significant thing is that Damon only has 25 lines of dialogue in the film, so essentially he was paid $1 million for per line.
Tyson Beckford — Matt Damon’s a Sellout On Guns (VIDEO) https://t.co/3dsJ14wNNe via @TMZ
— ThePolitical Port (@PoliticalPort) August 3, 2016
Tyson Beckford didn’t seem bothered by Damon “getting money,” but he did seem a little bothered with Damon’s gun stance.
“It’s cool. If you can get it get it, but I thought he was anti gun? I see you with a big gun, getting money! He claims he’s not too A-friendly, so you can’t sit there and denounce the gun, when the gun is making you money. Me, personally? I don’t play that. It’s Hollywood. You can lie and pay and get money. Get your money Matt.”
Back in July, Damon made his views on the controversy known in an interview with the Guardian . He spoke out after Girls star and creator Lena Dunham called for marketing teams to get rid of their gratuitous shots of guns.
He called the issue an “emotional” one, adding, “I totally get it, especially given what’s going on recently and I don’t blame Lena at all. Jason Bourne is a guy who runs around with a gun, so it’s not gratuitous marketing, but certainly in light of recent events I understand that impulse to want to tear the gun out of the picture.”
#JasonBourne dethrones #StarTrekBeyond at the weekend box office https://t.co/mZFOlvcsEz pic.twitter.com/EuA9aGGF3K
— IGN (@IGN) July 31, 2016
In a separate interview with the Sydney Herald , Matt expressed his own views on gun control.
“You guys did it here in one fell swoop and I wish that could happen in my country, but it’s such a personal issue for people that we cannot talk about it sensibly.
“People get so emotional that even when you make a suggestion about not selling AK47s to people on terror watch lists, that’s a non-starter.”
Damon recently came under fire once again when the trailer arrived for The Great Wall , which shows Matt Damon, a Caucasian man, saving the day. Actress Constance Wu took issue with it, saying that Hollywood needs to fix its hero bias. She stated that Universal Pictures should’ve cast an Asian as the hero of the story instead of casting someone who’s Caucasian. If there’s a question as to why Damon was cast, it’s simply in his numbers. He has successfully opened films with smashing box office numbers, especially in the action genre.
That said, this still doesn’t fix Hollywood’s problems in becoming more inclusive to all races.
Wu stated , “We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that only a white man can save the world. Our heroes don’t look like Matt Damon. They look like Malala. Gandhi. Mandela. Your big sister when she stood up for you to those bullies that one time.”
What do you think of the latest controversy surrounding actor Matt Damon?
[Image via Universal Pictures]
