Casey Affleck is getting candid about the past sexual allegations against him and the effects the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements have had on him.
Affleck, 42, regrets his actions on the set of “I’m Not Here”, resulting in two separate lawsuits against the actor by two women. Though they were settled out of court in 2010, the allegations resurfaced when he was promoting his role in “Manchester By The Sea” in 2016.
“First of all, that I was ever involved in a conflict that resulted in a lawsuit is something that I really regret. I wish I had found a way to resolve things in a different way. I hate that,” he tells the Associated Press. In addition to acting in the movie, Affleck also co-wrote, directed, and produced the project.
“I contributed to that unprofessional environment and I tolerated that kind of behaviour from other people, and I wish that I hadn’t. And I regret a lot of that,” he says, adding that he didn’t understand the responsibilities that came with being the boss on set. “I behaved in a way and allowed others to behave in a way that was really unprofessional. And I’m sorry.”
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“We all agreed to just try to put it behind us and move on with our lives,” he says of the lawsuits.
Affleck, who won the Best Actor Oscar for “Manchester By The Sea”, has, for the most part, stayed out of the spotlight following the birth of the #MeToo movement. Ahead of this year’s ceremony, Affleck backed out of presenting the Best Actress trophy, which is typically given by the previous year’s Best Actor winner. Jodie Foster and Jennifer Lawrence filled in for him.
“I think it was the right thing to do just given everything that was going on in our culture at the moment. And having two incredible women go present the Best Actress award felt like the right thing,” he adds.
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Now, Affleck is speaking up about what he’s learned about his own behaviour and the on-set environment of his films after the conversation about women’s rights and treatment gained steam.
“Over the past couple of years, I’ve been listening to a lot of this conversation, this public conversation, and learned a lot. I kind of moved from a place of being defensive to one of a more mature point of view, trying to find my own culpability,” Affleck explains. “Once I did that, I discovered there was a lot to learn. I was a boss. I was one of the producers on the set.”
It’s a lesson Affleck is trying to instill in his two young sons, Indiana and Atticus.
“I have two boys, so I want to be in a world where grown men model compassion and decency and also contrition when it’s called for, and I certainly tell them to own their mistakes when they make them,” he says.
Affleck’s next role will be opposite Robert Redford in “The Old Man & The Gun”, premiering at TIFF next month.
