Matt Damon: It wasn't a bag of cans and Leo Varadkar is a badass

His presence sparked a huge online reaction, with many star-struck fans taking to social media to share stories about their interactions with the Hollywood star.

A picture of Matt holding a Supervalu bag next to a popular swimming spot in Dalkey proved to be major talking point when it went viral last month, as everyone pondered what exactly he had in the bag.

This morning, Matt finally cleared up the mystery and it turns out he wasn't heading to the nearest house party armed with a bag of cans after all.

"I think we just had the towels because I was with the kids and we were taking a dip in the water there and so we had towels to dry off.

"I think we just grabbed one of our SuperValu bags and stuff ... we didn't show up with beach bags. We were just improvising," he told Spin 1038's Fully Charged.

When asked how he would compare Ireland's response to the health crisis to the US, he said he thinks Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is a "badass."

"You've got a [Taoiseach] who just like goes to the hospital and starts working. I mean, what a badass. That's just on another level."

Matt has been staying in Dalkey with his wife Luciana Barroso and three of his children Isabella, Gia and Stella.

He had flown into Dublin to film scenes for his next movie The Last Duel when US President Donald Trump banned flights between Europe and the United States.

The Oscar-winning actor said Dalkey is "one of the most beautiful places we've ever been."

"I'm with my whole family, I've got my kids and we have teachers with us because we were planning on missing school for about eight weeks.

"So we've got what nobody else has which is actually live human beings teaching our kids.

"We feel guilty, like we've got this kind of incredible set up in this place which is, I mean it's just absolutely gorgeous."

He added that he "can't think of any place you'd rather want to be in a two-kilometre radius of," and even compared the Southside suburb to a "fairytale".

Matt's oldest daughter, Alexia, is still in New York.

He said she was diagnosed with Covid-19 "really early on."

"Our oldest daughter is in college, obviously that’s been shut down. She’s in New York City and she had Covid really early on along with her roommates and got through it fine.

"So I shouldn’t say our whole family is together, of our 4 kids we’ve got the 3 younger ones and our oldest one, we’ll reunite with her at the end of the month."