Matt Damon didn't want to deny gay rumours

Matt Damon has said that he didn't want to deny rumours that he was gay because he didn't want to offend his gay friends.

Early on in his career speculation surrounded his relationship with Ben Affleck, with rumours suggesting that the pair were secretly a couple.

[Related story: Matt Damon joins Clooney's all-star thriller]

The actor, who's been married to wife Luciana for seven years, explained his motives in an interview with Playboy.

“I never denied those rumours because I was offended and didn’t want to offend my friends who were gay - as if being gay were some kind of f**ing disease,” he said.

“It put me in a weird position in that sense. The whole thing was just gross.”

Damon also celebrated changing attitudes towards to gay people in the entertainment industry.

“But look, there have been great signs of progress - the fact that Anderson Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres can come out so beautifully and powerfully, and it’s a big f***ing deal that it turns out nobody gives a sh*t.”

Damon has recently finished playing Scott Thorson, the lover of Liberace, being played by Michael Douglas, in a biopic of the singer called 'Behind The Candelabra' directed by Steven Soderbergh.

“Michael was a wonderful kisser,” he laughed. “My concerns ended up mattering a lot less once we were filming. The dynamic between the men was complex and interesting.

“We both have a lot of gay friends, and we were not going to screw this up. It wasn’t the most natural thing in the world to do, though. Like, for one scene, I had to come out of a pool, go over to Michael, straddle him on a chaise lounge and start kissing him.

“And throughout the script, it’s not like I kiss him just once. We drew it up like a football plan. I mean, it’s tastefully done. But this movie’s not going to be for everyone.

“If Liberace were alive today, everybody would love his music and nobody would care what he did in his private life.”