Matt Damon addresses comments about gay actors

Damon is currently promoting his new film The Martian, in which he plays an astronaut stranded on Mars

Actor Matt Damon has told Ellen DeGeneres that comments he made in a recent interview, saying gay actors should keep their sexuality a secret, were taken out of context.

"It is painful when things get said that you don't believe," he said.

Just weeks after Damon had to explain his comments on diversity, an interview with The Observer sparked backlash.

"You're a better actor the less people know about you period. Sexuality is a huge part of that," he told the paper.

"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," he told the British newspaper.

'Not that guy'

Damon had been addressing rumours he and Ben Affleck were gay, which he said surfaced as they tried to get their 1997 Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting made.

"It's just like any piece of gossip, and it put us in a weird position of having to answer, you know what I mean?" he told the paper.

"Which was then really deeply offensive. I don't want to, like [imply] it's some sort of disease - then it's like I'm throwing my friends under the bus.

"But at the time, I remember thinking and saying, Rupert Everett was openly gay and this guy - more handsome than anybody, a classically trained actor - it's tough to make the argument that he didn't take a hit for being out."

Damon had initially been talking about rumours he and Ben Affleck were gay when he made the comments

Damon later addressed his comments during a pre-taped interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which is due to air on Tuesday.

"I was just trying to say actors are more effective when they're a mystery, right?" he told DeGeneres, "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."

He went on to comment on internet journalists fuelling the backlash.

"In the blogosphere there's no real penalty for just taking the ball and running with it," he said, "You know what I mean? You're just trying to click on your thing."

DeGeneres, who is openly gay, told Damon: "I know you and I know you're not that guy."

Damon was also recently forced to apologise for comments on diversity in film while judging on his HBO reality show Project Greenlight.