In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, actor and producer Matt Damon explained that one of the conditions for filming in Trump Tower was a requirement that filmmakers create a role for Donald Trump -- which he called a waste of time that usually ended up on the cutting room floor.
According to Damon, he personally has never met with Trump, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been exposed to some of his quirks.
"The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write him in a part," Damon explained. "[Director] Martin Brest had to write something in Scent of a Woman — and the whole crew was in on it. 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."
"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 added.
Damon had a few other things to say about Trump.
"I’m obviously very concerned with the state of things and with the damage that’s being done to our institutions; it’s just very pernicious what he’s doing," he explained. "Robert Mueller is kind of representing these institutions at this point, and just by some trick of history he’s the one who’s essentially defending them against these attacks, so hopefully his investigation is going smoothly. He can’t wrap things up soon enough, as far as I’m concerned."
"I thought Jimmy Kimmel’s line was the best, 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.'"
