Matt's Mouth Tastes Like Foot. And Other Truths & Lies
Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 4:14PM For those who aren't on Twitter where I got kind of worked up about Matt Damon's latest foot-in-mouth disease, a quick recap what went down is in order. Before we begin I think it's important to note that I have liked Matt Damon as an actor since School Ties (1992). I still like him as an actor and movie star and The Martian is a lot of fun. Go see it next weekend! What follows is in no way bitching about his work, his fame or even his character (I do not believe he's a homophobe, just that he doesn't quite "get" what he found himself talking about and should probably stop).
Why people (including me) got worked up about what he said after the jump...
First there was the embarrassing incident when he cut off a woman of color to mansplain to her about diversity. That mess had just died down when he answered a reporter question about ye olden times when he and Ben Affleck were just getting famous and people thought they were boyfriends rather than besties in which he seemed to implied that gay actors would be better off if they remained mysteries. It is not a huge irresponsible leap of logic, as some people have claimed, to associate "remaining a mystery" with staying in the closet. His sample size for why he said this was one: Rupert Everett.
Full disclosure: I was a huge-ass Rupert Everett fan from Another Country (1984) through Next Best Thing (2000) and was always pissed his career wasn't bigger. But here's the thing: Rupert Everett should be no one's sample size. While it's true that he has publicy stated that coming out damaged his career, most people who have any knowledge of the ins and outs of his career and lived through the 80s and early 90s know that there were several other factors in why his career never went super nova (including the super mundane/common reason of being "difficult") and he was often his own worst enemy. Naturally all the "ah, don't be so hard on Matt Damon" people were quick to cite Rupert's own feelings. Never mind that Rupert Everett's self awareness is not one of his strong suits. Nor has he ever been able to dodge "bitter" claims, so he might not be the best judge of this topic.
for some reason people forget that Rupert Everett did just fine in straight roles (Dance with a Stranger / The Comfort of Strangers were just two of them)
Anyway, then Matt Damon went on Ellen to explain what he meant -- where Ellen also vouched for Matt being a good guy (as if that had anything to do with this debate). His original statement was this:
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.”
Then he doubled down with Ellen...
I was just trying to say actors are more effective when they’re a mystery. Right?
And then he basically blames the whole thing on the journalist who quoted him. While his comment on the surface sounds reasonable enough, sounds can be deceiving. This is one of the easiest untruths to shore up continued homophobia in Hollywood. Matt seems totally (blissfully) unaware that he is a giant movie star who everyone knows everything about. We know who his best friend is (also a giant movie star). We know that he has a wife and kids because he talks about them in public and in interviews and brings his beautiful wife to premieres. We know who he dated in the past because they were sometimes famous actresses. This is not remaining a mystery. This is telling people about his sexuality, whether or not he realizes it. This did not stop him from recently taking on a gay role and expecting to a) be able to sell it and b) that people would buy it.
And here's the happy part for Matt: People have no problem accepting him in a wide range of roles that are not like who he is in real life because he is a good actor! It's as simple as that. Everyone knows he is not a genius mathematician or a famous soccer play or a super spy. But they like him in those roles because he was good at playing them.
Everyone knows this if they think over it for more than two seconds. Unfortunately when it comes to public advice and discourse about gay actors no one wants to think about it for more than two seconds. They'd rather just trot out this closet-reinforcing stupidity like it's gospel truth. FACT: We all know that actors are in the business of pretending. The rules are only different for gay actors if we insist that they are. And we only insist they are when we let systemic ignorance and double-standards guide us. If you, as an audience member can believe that Matt Damon was Michael Douglas's butt boy for Beyond the Candelabra than you can believe that Matt Bomer was eager to please all of his female fans with his dick in Magic Mike (Oh, wait. That's right. You already did.)
In conclusion: Matt Damon should shut up because he seems like a good guy who just doesn't get that he unwittingly supports a double-standard. He doesn't need to be "a mystery" to be effective on screen, but they do. The heroes, who we should talk about instead, are the out gay actors like Matt Bomer, Sir Ian McKellen, John Barrowman, Alan Cumming and the rest (there are more and more of them) who are refusing to fall for this common age-old lie that Damon is unwittingly regurgitating. Instead they're just doing their work and living their lives. Just like... heywhaddyaknow... Matt Damon.
P.S. In happier Matt Damon news, he is the best he's been in quite a long time in The Martian (2015) as Astronaut Mark Watney who is left for dead on Mars by Jessica Chastain and her team. Matt's going to have a massive hit and maybe even another Oscar nomination on his hands for his efforts.
Pssssst. And Everyone will continue to know that he is not really a genius botanist who got stranded on Mars.
ACTING!
Reader Comments (40)
I agree with every single word of this!
Preach.
Well said!
At least Matt's unfortunate comments allow us to see some nice stills of Rupert Everett.
Everything I thought. YES!
Between this and his lecture about "diversity" on Project Greenlight, Matt Damon has lately been... extremely disappointing.
Quite so. It continues to baffle me why he even feels compelled to speak about an issue he knows nothing about.
The Rupert Everett reference was bothering me too. I'm not sure why anyone would expect Rupert would've had a bigger career than the one he has. Was Hollywood foaming at the mouth to cast the English guy with a posh accent in all movies after he starred in a handful of moderate art house hits? Using Rupert's name actually demonstrates familiarity with the actor, which sort of undoes his point.
I disagree on this particular issue, I really do think there's just a bit too much reaching re the response to Matt and this gay thing (and suspect, maybe even subconsciously) some of the outrage is from residual annoyance over the diversity issue which was just awkward/embarrassing.
Neither of Matt's quoted statements on their own are greatly inaccurate or unsound. Matt does have the privilege of being a straight person whose sexuality we know without him having to worry about "coming out" with, so the phrasing is definitely off. And I won't quibble on Everett in particular, but then, think of straight actors who have had pitfalls like Everett (bad movies, lack of self-awareness) but still down the line managed a comeback for some reasons.
Matt's statement honestly reminds me of, Jessica Chastain I think it was (or Anika Noni Rose in an interview...), who said she wouldn't reveal her age for auditions and generally because actors should be able to be a blank slate and putting that knowledge out there makes people less likely to higher you for parts you're not age appropriate. The truth in Matt's comment like the age comment is unfortunate, but the comment itself is hardly opprobrious, to me.
Oh calm down,it's just his opinion.
"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.”
I get what he means but geez, that was a crappy way to put it. It's not about sexuality, really, but your personal life in general (which can include your sexuality). It's about remaining a "mystery" in the sense in that the public shouldn't be saturated with details of your life that can prove to be a distraction in that people can't get lost in you as a particular character. I get that.
But that "mystery" isn't affected by mundane details like the person you're dating/married to, talents you might have and perform on late night shows or how much fun you have with your kids. In any job you have, knowing stuff like that makes you more personable and doesn't really affect how people see you do your job. Especially if you're damn good at it.
Some stuff you can totally keep to yourself. Like Tom Hardy and that sexuality hullabaloo a while back because that line of questioning was inappropriate not because it diminishes the "mystery" or that such a revelation would be a threat to his acting and the audience's suspension of disbelief.
Dragging LGBT actors into the mix was a total mistake since they have been having to hide for ages and are only now getting the chance to be out and open and be on-screen with people not giving a shit that they are playing straight when they actually aren't. Like Nat said, it's not like anyone was going "FRAUD!" when he was in bed with Liberace or eyeing Jude Law in Ripley when we all damn well know he has a wife and kids.
Anyways, I do love Matt (Ripley hooked me in and School Ties did for um...."other" reasons.) so this is more of a eyeroll instead of "HE'S DEAD TO ME" levels of outrage that is common these days.
*praise hands emoji* No one, actors or otherwise, is ever seen as a mystery or without sexuality; our snap judgment almost always signals straight until stated otherwise. And you're right, these limitations for gay actors only remain true if we keep yammering about them.
There is no way a person of any type of privilege can offer suggestion, opinion, or prescription to a member of a marginalized group regarding the thing that disallows him or her that same privilege without coming off like a condescending douche bag. Clearly, Damon hasn't learned this lesson.
I had a Matt Damon phase last year. I think because of an interview here with the actress who played his wife in The Informant I saw the movie and loved it. And began a journey of watching the most interesting on the surface Matt Damon movies I could find. I really liked him because he was an adorable lefty. Now I know he's just white. Hence his obliviousness to what the female black producer was attempting to convey to him.
totally agree, 100%. Matt Bomer is not the best example though. He is one of many actors who - even after coming out - refused to talk to me (for a gay magazine in Germany) with the argument "actors should talk as little as possible about their personal life and remain a mystery, like the used to be in the past"....
Brilliantly stated.
"In conclusion: Matt Damon should shut up"... exactly, because that's how you maintain your mystery, not by being in the closet. These days you can be out, proud and a quiet celebrity like De Niro (in his heyday) or Sigourney Weaver (in hers). It's not a contradiction. You can also be a publicity whore. You can also be an advocate or an activist. It's 2015 and young people don't need backward-thinking messages.
Well stated Nathaniel.
Yeah, the thing is that Matt Damon obviously has a point about gay actors' careers being diminished if they come out. At least when it comes to major roles. I don't think anybody would disagree with him about that and nobody is calling him homophobic because of it. Where it gets iffy is in suggesting actors should remain a mystery including their sexuality where nobody bats an eye if someone like Matt or his friend Ben Affleck walk a red carpet with their female significant others or talk about their babies on TV.
And the fact that he made this observation after so quickly mentioning how annoying it was to be suspected of being in a homosexual relationship with Ben Affleck is even worse. I'm sure in 1998 he wasn't about keeping the mystery. He doesn't seem to realize that walking a red carpet with his wife and talking about his babies in People magazine are the things he is saying gay actors shouldn't do. Of course, if a gay actor was about "keeping the mystery" and never showing up to award shows and red carpets with a date people would spend their life on the rumour mill.
I am just going to be honest and say he sounds like a dumbshit, or at minimum a privileged straight white man. In no way, shape or form is Matt Damon qualified to talk about diversity or what it means to be closeted. I don't see him engaging in "mystery" when he talks about his wife or kids, or when he trots them out for photo ops. He does that because a man being with a woman is considered perfectly normal. Staying in the closet is not the answer for gay men or lesbians in Hollywood. The answer is to briefly come out and then primarily talk about the work, but to also feel perfectly safe to choose whether or not you want to talk about your personal life, just like any other celebrity.
Perfectly said Nathaniel.
Thanks, Nathaniel. This was a very balanced post, and while I agree with you completely (Matt Damon is a good actor who has said some dumb things recently, but that doesn't mean that we should totally discredit his acting or his movies because of them), I can't help but think, Jeez, another disappointing public figure. Between Matt's tone deaf use of being gay as an example of what needs to be kept quiet to successfully suspend an audience's disbelief in a movie theater and the Guardian article I read earlier today about Marion Cotillard saying that women's rights need to be fought for but that she isn't a feminist because feminism requires the separation of men and women, I've kinda had enough (well, enough today, anyway). Why, oh why do celebrities make themselves so hard to love sometimes?!? <sigh>
Yeah, Damon should not shut up. He has his own perspective on things, and you may not like them, but you may not censor them either.
Plus, I think he's quite right.
"Yeah, the thing is that Matt Damon obviously has a point about gay actors' careers being diminished if they come out. At least when it comes to major roles. I don't think anybody would disagree with him about that and nobody is calling him homophobic because of it. Where it gets iffy is in suggesting actors should remain a mystery including their sexuality where nobody bats an eye if someone like Matt or his friend Ben Affleck walk a red carpet with their female significant others or talk about their babies on TV.... He doesn't seem to realize that walking a red carpet with his wife and talking about his babies in People magazine are the things he is saying gay actors shouldn't do"
I agree. Matt has a point about it diminishing an actors career but he is ignorant about the double standard of what is viewed as private for a straight actor vs a gay actor.
Good job.
Ahh. Everyone has to be so politically correct about everything nowadays.
Nathaniel - thanks for a very well stated and balanced article - I totally agree on everything.
I'm sick of Ellen being the stopping point for apologies after the fact.
She should show some backbone and tell him why it's important for gay actors and actresses to be treated equally.
@Susannah - I share your disappointment with both Matt Damon and Marion Cotillard,
But the younger generation including Ellen Page, Kristin Stewart, and Cara Delevingne are far more tolerant and open than people 40 and over.
Matt Damon just sounded so old. Generation gap opens over these issues.
Beautifully worded and hit the nail on the head, but just a small correction - unless I missed something recent, Alan Cumming is openly bisexual, not gay. It's a tiny but important detail, even though in this particular case it's his openness on the subject that matters for the topic at hand.
I love Rupert Everett, but everybody knows he was bitch.
But still, can anyone name a gay Matt Damon? I mean, nice guy, big star, not difficult, play gay and straight and is a big draw?
(Damon is not right, but I'd get scared if I was a rising movie star in the closet)
He is not wrong, coming out usually hurts the person's career. It may not be the only factor but it is true - it won't help the matters. It's unfair and wrong but this isn't Damon's fault. I think the bigger deal this week is what Cotillard said about feminism - why aren't more people on her case for that? Because she is a chick and it's just safer to go after a men who speaks his mind?
annony -- it's not about being "correct". It's about loudly condemning double standards. so that the world gets better for gay people and straight people stop being so ignorant. In happy news: many straight people are far more educated and progressive on this topic than they once were. That's because of people who loudly condemned double standards and fought for some social justice.
taylor -- you're right. i always forget that because he has this longtime boyfriend he references quite a bit.
sati -- i think because so many famous actresses have said similarly stupid shit (important to note that famous people do not live in the real world. they live in a hermetically sealed money-filled world and even if you're paid half as much as your male stars you're still making millions so why would you even notice) and because marion herself has said wackadoo things in the past (wasn't she a 9/11 conspiracy theorist?) people don't take anything but her acting seriously.
Cal -- of course we don't have a Gay Damon yet. BUT WE WILL. That's the whole point in pointing out these double standards that people like Damon don't even seem aware of. (he not being aware that his sexuality is not private -- a common malady of straight people actually and one that has shown its dumb head in just about every homophobic everyday situation: a man displaying a photo of his wife and kids on his desk -- nobody even notices the photo. a man displaying a photo of his boyfriend on his desk -- in less tolerant environments they get called into the office. I had a friend in college nearly fired for that (1990s) -- he got a warning and a "we don't care but stop flaunting it!" )
it's getting much better for gay actors out there. but it's only getting better because people like jonathan groff, rupert everett, ian mckellen, matt homer, cheyenne jackson, john benjamin hickey, neil patrick harris, zachary quinto, russell tovey, dan bucatinksky, stephen fry, derek jacobi, and dozens and dozens of others have ignored the common 'it'll hurt your career' advice/ "wisdom".
It's also important to remember that most actors can't make a living at acting and most people with SAG cards would kill to have the lucrative careers of any of the men above, all of whom have worked continually since coming out... yes, even rupert everett despite his protests.
i love me some Ben Whishaw - gay friend to Eddie Redmayne in Danish Girl; straight and hilarious in The Lobster; sidekick to uber male James Bond in Spectre; gay married to his Bright Star composer.
This is magnificent, Nathaniel
This is basically a much better-written version of what I wrote about this in a fit of pique last night.
At best, by saying this Damon is showing that he is completely ignorant of how his own craft works (acting being all about making people forget what they know about you and believing in the character/world you are portraying), and at worst he is saying something extremely damaging to gay people. It's not exactly homophobic per se, but it promotes homophobia by suggesting that gay people should not say anything about their homosexuality at the same time as he and countless others flaunt their heterosexuality around the world without giving it a second thought.
Nathaniel is totally right about the double standards his statement is riddled with, and he's right to call them out in just this way - cautiously but firmly, not overreacting but politely pointing it out and asking for some thought about this.
Matt Damon showing up to a red carpet and answering questions about his babies = part of the job, but he keeps the rest of his life private and gets paid millions upon millions to do so.
A gay actor shows up to a red carpet with a same-sex partner = they're being too open and losing the "mystery" and losing roles.
That's what it boils down to and Damon doesn't seem to realize the inherent double standard of what he said. For a straight actor, privacy is what goes on behind closed doors. For a gay actor it's what happens everywhere including on the street, on the red carpet or wherever. It's not too far removed from people who say gay people are "flaunting their behaviour" by kissing or holding hands in public when they know there are people uncomfortable with it yet a straight person could do it and nobody bats an eye.
Can you hear me clapping for this post over there? Very well said!
V -- thank u
"It's also important to remember that most actors can't make a living at acting and most people with SAG cards would kill to have the lucrative careers of any of the men above, all of whom have worked continually since coming out... yes, even rupert everett despite his protests."
While I wholeheartedly agree with so much already written, this whole paragraph adds another (rarely spoken) layer to the debate.
It's one thing to argue that a straight Matt Damon and an (openly) gay Matt Damon wouldn't have the same careers - a very true point, one that all of us surely agree on and a perfect reason why Damon's ill-considered comments deserve to be questioned and called out, so that EVERYONE recognises that it's Matt Damon that is the subject of this comparison, not the adjective. Because in 10 years, I hope that a straight Matt Damon and a gay Matt Damon would have pretty much the same career trajectory.
However, it's another thing entirely to argue that, say, Rupert Everett and Colin Firth haven't had the same careers for a single reason. Both are very good (if limited) actors - one developed into a box office draw, the other didn't. Sexuality certainly played a part. So did a myriad of other reasons. To limit it to "if you come out you can't be a box office draw" is a very dangerous message - both were wholly eclipsed in the 90s by limited (sometimes good) actor Hugh Grant. Why wasn't Firth as big as Grant?
In short, I think it's equally important to call out (as Nathaniel has) the dangerous attitude of "I'd be as big as Matt Damon if I wasn't openly gay" that Everett has perpetuated. Especially when all of the actors he named are pushing and pushing at the glass ceiling (unlike Everett). Especially when 500,000 straight actors would kill to have Everett's (post-coming-out career).
Much of movie-watching is about appealing to the lizard brain. Believing Damon as Douglas' butt-boy is not unlike blackface in the ol' days, when there is the thrills of seeing your favorite straight star play-acting "extraordinary" (especially within the authority of "biopic"; not just another off-Broadway adaptation), but no real "discomfort" of knowing he's being penetrated offscreen on the regular. That's the worst scenario of arguing against BTC's wide-release (and sure enough it ended up HBO.)
Damon touched a nerve less in soft-peddling the double standards of straight privilege, than it's so ingrained in many cultures the world over without overnight, deep-conditioning solutions (give that trickle-down some decades to a century):
Namely, deep-seated beliefs of what constitutes authentic masculinity and all its wherewithal, versus anything else coded/stereotyped as non-authentic masculinity (as but an inferior copy, unconvincing attempt of "try-hard".) In a medium where the "truth" of realism and the "fluidity of truth" via stylization run rampant, the fact judging the "effectiveness" of performances are put down to just a matter of craft -- and not all the extra-textual stuff of gossip, public personae, and cultural conditioning -- is putting a Bambi-decorated band-aid over the complexity at work.
When you map the real-world beliefs and practices (including our daily put-downs in applying female pronouns -- seldom in celebratory tones -- even in postures of proud bitchery) to acting as "business of pretending", there is a stark difference in the powers we accord to different authorial voices (which speaks to why a versatile Ben Whishaw doesn't equal "the Gay Matt Damon", and why there's a cottage industry/"grassroot" drive to out leading men -- such need is greater than having 100 more Whishaws, all in the name of planting a flag on a "sizable" part of the pop culture planet.)
It (does) go(es) beyond craft. It taps into that lizard brain, flinching away or "crting on the street" at the first sight.
As for Damon falling into Everett's supposed self-mythologizing (what about the very real consequences of this perception's self-perpetuating irrespective of "actual causes" within the industry?)...
Better than all the op-ed, Vlog, blog posts in overdrive of today's world, is some actual investigative journalism.
If Everett's career is truly on its last legs and he can "at last" speak without qualms, why not interview him on what (leading, juicy) roles he believed to have lost by being out? Track down the casting directors, producers, directors to verify his claims.
Picking and choosing quotes (such as McKellen gave in contradictory advice to younger actors to lay low, yet espoused his "better" acting in being out), to defend a vision of the ideal civil society over this thing we inherit (and Damon describes pragmatically without PC), is running in circles a tad.