‘And sexuality is a huge part of that.
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Raw Story reported on Monday morning that Damon, who’s busily promoting his new film, The Martian, made comments to this effect while discussing his being a straight male actor playing a gay man in 2013 television movie, Behind the Candelabra.
YUKIO GION/AP Ben Affleck (l.) and Matt Damon (r.), seen here in 1997, were the subjects of gay rumors when they first wrote “Good Will Hunting“.
“I remember thinking and saying, Rupert Everett was openly gay and this guy – more handsome than anybody, a classically trained actor”, he continued. If the public is unable to accept gay actors in certain roles, it means people are projecting their own preconceived notions, beliefs, and stereotypes onto the actors. “Which was then really deeply offensive”, he explained. I don’t want to, like [imply] it’s some sort of disease – then its like I’m throwing my friends under the bus.
The headline reads “Matt Damon urges gay actors to stay in the closet to further their careers”, but provides no quoted words or phrases to suggest that any of these words actually came out of Damon’s mouth.
The 44-year-old lives by his own rules and generally keeps his home life with wife Luciana and their four daughters private, joking that paparazzi don’t even bother camping outside his Los Angeles home anymore because he never does anything newsworthy.
Considering that “straight” is nearly assumed to be the “default” sexuality, perhaps having more openly gay actors could serve to reset that assumption-and change perspectives on which actors can play which roles as a result. You need to shut up cause we’re starting to really wish you were stuck on Mars (but hey, at least you’ll have water now). Everett gave a now-famous interview to The Guardian in 2009, in which he said that coming out publicly ruined his acting career. “But when that one came along (in 2003) I chickened out, because I couldn’t tell”.
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Apparently, though, there’s still a long way to go.
