Matt Damon delivered an interesting perspective on the role diversity plays in Hollywood: It only matters in front of the camera.

"When we're talking about diversity, you do it in the casting of the film, not in the casting of the show," the Oscar winner explained to Effie Brown, a black female producer who appeared alongside him as a panelist on his HBO series "Project Greenlight" on Sunday.

Brown, who has produced more than 17 feature films, including "Dear White People," appeared to be gobsmacked by his response, commenting: "Wow, okay."

"Project Greenlight," now in its fourth season, is Damon and Ben Affleck's reality series that awards $3 million to a filmmaker to direct a feature film. Writers, producers and directors join the duo in narrowing down the finalists who will helm the project.

Brown, the lone female and black person in the room, points out to Damon and her fellow panelists, that they should consider more diverse directors for a film of which its lead character, a black female, is "a hooker who gets hit by her white pimp." She suggests that it could be handled with greater sensitivity from a person of color or female.

But Damon insists in a separate interview that such a consideration "would undermine what the competition was supposed to be about, which is about giving somebody this job based entirely on merit and leaving all other factors out of it."