Matt Damon talks politics in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

The local actor — who’s at the Venice Film Festival to promote the George Clooney-directed “Suburbicon,’’ and Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing’’ — told the publication that he’s never met President Trump, but that he’s been told that in the past, filmmakers who wanted to use Trump’s buildings were required to put him in a scene.

“The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write him in a part. [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 [expletive] 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.’’

Damon also spoke about last month’s white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.: “A lot of people, myself included, are really waking up to the extent of the existing racism, and it’s so much worse than I naively thought. I just feel naive at this point. . . . 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.’’

Damon referred to Clooney’s “Suburbicon,’’ which takes on racism in 1950s suburbia.