Matt Damon reveals the bizarre origins of Donald Trump's Home Alone 2 cameo

'The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write him in a part'

If Donald Trump's cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York never made much sense, there's a good reason for it: it was never originally meant to be in the film.

While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Matt Damon revealed the bizarre clause that Trump had whenever film productions sought use of one of his buildings, in which he demanded that a part was written for him.

"[Director] Martin Brest had to write something in Scent of a Woman — and the whole crew was in on it," he continued. "You have to waste an hour of your day with a b*llshit shot: Donald Trump walks in and Al Pacino’s like, “Hello, Mr. Trump!” — you had to call him by name — and then he exits. 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."

Damon stars in George Clooney's latest directorial output, Suburbicon, which bases itself off a real-life story about the violent racial conflict which exploded when a black family first moved into an all-white Pennsylvania neighbourhood in the late '50s.

A film that's even more prescient after the events of Charlottesville. "A lot of people, myself included, are really waking up to the extent of the existing racism," Damon commented. "And it’s so much worse than I naively thought. I just feel naïve at this point. It was shocking to see those kids — 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?'"

"Again, I naively thought that, behind our generation, [another one] was coming with more awareness and inclusiveness, and that everything was getting better with each generation. And to see these young, aggrieved, white boys walking with their torches and screaming 'Jews will not replace us!' It was just shocking. Then the night that the President [made his] 'many sides' comment was absolutely abhorrent. Sadly, I feel the movie was made at the right time."

"I thought Jimmy Kimmel’s line was the best," he later added."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.'"

Suburbicon had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. It hits UK cinemas 24 November.