President Donald Trump has 24 acting credits to his name, starting in 1985 with an uncredited role on The Jeffersons, but they had nothing to do with his acting ability. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Damon broke down the real reason Trump has appeared in so many movies: his yuge real estate empire and a little pay to play.
"The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings," Damon told THR. "You had to write him in a part." Easier said than done, since Damon, who says he's never met the president, said that it was often a pain in the butt for the film crews. "[Director] Martin Brest had to write something in Scent of a Woman — and the whole crew was in on it," he said. "You have to waste an hour of your day with a bullshit shot: Donald Trump walks in and Al Pacino’s like, 'Hello, Mr. Trump!' — you had to call him by name — and then he exits."
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In simple terms, Damon said, "You waste a little time so that you can get the permit, and then you can cut the scene out. But I guess in Home Alone 2 they left it in."
Before someone in Trump's White House starts calling this fake news, Page Six points out that Damon's story appears to check out. Chris O'Donnell, who starred in 1992's Scent Of A Woman, told Conan O'Brien back in April that before shooting at the Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time, he was given a new script with an added scene featuring Trump.
"It was explained to us," O'Donnell said, "that in order for us to film at the Plaza, we had to have a little walk-on part for Donald and Marla [Maples],” Trump's then wife. The scene was later cut from the final version of the film.
As you can guess from that exchange, Damon isn't a big fan of the current president or his leadership skills. He specifically disliked how POTUS handled Charlottesville, calling Trump's "many sides" comment "abhorrent." But he did like what his (fake) nemesis Jimmy Kimmel had to say in response.
"I thought Jimmy Kimmel’s line was the best," Damon said, "when he said that Trump said there were fine people on both sides, and showed the clip of the guys screaming 'Jews will not replace us,' and cut back to Jimmy saying: 'Let’s get something straight. If you’re with a group of people chanting "Jews will not replace us" and you don’t immediately leave that group, you are not a fine person.'”
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