Matt Damon Addresses Controversy Over Discussing Openly Gay Actors in Hollywood

Matt Damon poses for a photo with Ellen DeGeneres while making an appearance on her show on Tuesday (September 29).

On the show, the 44-year-old The Martian actor addressed the controversy from The Guardian interview where he discussed openly gay actors in Hollywood.

“Yeah it was just in an interview with The Guardian that I literally just found out too, but it was that I was talking about actors are more effective when you know less about their personal lives. And was talking about it in the context of when Ben and I first started and people wrote all these articles, when Good Will Hunting came out, that we were gay because it was two guys who wrote the script. And feeling like oh, well we can’t even like then you have to address it and then it’s like well I’m not gonna throw my friends under the bus, who are gay, and act like it’s some kind of a disease,” Matt said.

“Ya know how do you even address it so you’re always in these kind of weird things. But in this day and age I said this thing to The Guardian and it got turned into and I was just trying to say actors are more effective when they’re a mystery. Right? 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. Because in the blogosphere there’s no real penalty for just taking the ball and running with it. Ya know what I mean? You’re just trying to click on your thing. So…” Matt continued.

Matt also raised $20,000 for Water.org by doing the “Whip/Nae Nae”