Matt Damon has insisted he takes Hollywood's whitewashing problem seriously, while dismissing the criticism of his casting in The Great Wall as clickbait.
The term 'whitewashing' refers to putting white actors in roles that actors of other ethnicities should play.
The Bourne Ultimatum star faced a backlash after being revealed as the lead actor in the Chinese fantasy period piece with a budget of US$150 million.
"That whole idea of whitewashing, I take that very seriously," Damon told the Associated Press, specifically citing white actor Chuck Connors playing the lead character in the 1962 film Geronimo, about the famed Apache chief.
However, Damon says the term doesn't apply to his casting as an English mercenary in a historical Chinese film, because "it's a monster movie and it's a historical fantasy and I didn't take a role away from a Chinese actor... it wasn't altered because of me in any way."
He questioned whether the whitewashing accusations against The Great Wall would have been published before the fake news crisis currently gripping the online world.
"It suddenly becomes a story because people click on it, versus the traditional ways that a story would get vetted before it would get to that point," says Damon.
Website users click on compelling headlines, but "eventually you stop clicking on some of those more outrageous things because you just realise there is nothing to the story when you get to it," he said.
The Great Wall will be released in China next week, followed by other countries including New Zealand in February 2017.
Newshub.
