Matt Damon Says Trump Wouldn't Let Filmmakers Use Trump Buildings Unless The Now-President Got A Cameo

Donald Trump's cameo on Home Alone 2 may not have made sense to viewers at first. Macaulay Culkin's character Kevin could be seen gawking at the architectural opulence of the hotel he just entered when he accosted a younger-looking Trump and asked him, "Excuse me. Where's the lobby?" Trump responded with, "Down the hall and to the left." And that's it. It's a brief and quick exchange. But according to the Academy Award winner Matt Damon an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Trump had a requirement for filming at Trump Organization buildings, which entailed a part be written for Trump to appear in the film.

THR asked Damon if he had ever met the president in person. Damon said he had not met Trump but that the president apparently had a clause for filming crews that he be allowed to appear in the film once. "The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write [Trump] in a part. [Director] Martin Brest had to write something in Scent of a Woman — and the whole crew was in on it," Damon said.

Damon went on, "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."

But it wasn't mandatory that Trump make the final cut, according to Damon. "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," he said.

The actor's comments highlighted the common observation that Trump enjoys being in the limelight but Damon's interview with THR wasn't limited to Trump's peculiar film clause.

While discussing the recent events of far-right white supremacist violence in the United States, Damon expressed shock and concern over the Tiki-torch wielding Nazi youths in Charlottesville, Virginia. "A lot of people, myself included," Damon said, "are really waking up to the extent of the existing racism, and it’s so much worse than I naively thought." The actor spoke of feeling "naive" in the wake of the Charlottesville violence that stunned America, where violence at the far-right Unite The Rally led to the death of a progressive activist named Heather Heyer, according to officials.

"It was shocking to see those kids," Damon told THR, "They looked 20 and 30 years old — in button-down shirts, with Tiki torches, walking down the street. I thought, 'Those people are a lot younger than me. Who raised them?'"