Yesterday, Matt Damon was asked by The Guardian if he thought it was harder for actors to be openly gay in Hollywood. Damon responded that actors should keep their sexuality secret whether straight or gay.
“I think you’re a better actor the less people know about you period, “he said. “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.”
Sliiiiiightly hypocritical considering he’s an open book when it comes to his own heterosexuality, right?
His comments caused a furor in the gay blogosphere, where people interpreted it as meaning he thought gays should stay in the closet for the sake of their career. He then went on Ellen to do a little damage control and clear up his statement:
“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. 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.”
Vlogger Matt Baum is having none of it, though, saying it’s “a dangerous double standard.” Damon talking about his wife and kids in many, many interviews over the years has never ruined our ability to see him play a sexual orientation other than his own (e.g., Behind The Candelabra). So why should gays? And, as Towlroad points out: “While Damon may bristle at the accusation that he told actors to ‘get back in the closet’, Baume says it best: “Whether you meant it or not, it’s what you said.”
Says Baum:
“I don’t think Matt Damon is a bad guy. I think he’s just operating from some unexamined assumptions…By talking openly about being straight and then saying that people shouldn’t know about an actor’s sexuality, he’s reinforcing a dangerous assumption that everyone is presumed straight until they say otherwise and that audiences will only think of you as having a sexuality if they find out that you’re gay.”
I looooove Matt Damon, but as one commenter rather succintly put it: “Between this and Damon’s recent ‘mansplaining’ on diversity I’m thinking he just needs to be quiet for a while.”
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