Casey Affleck finally says sorry
Actor apologises for unprofessional atmosphere on set, which led to two civil lawsuits
With a new movie coming out this autumn, The Old Man & The Gun, Casey Affleck is finally speaking about bowing out of presenting the best actress Oscar and past harassment allegations against him amid the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.
Affleck’s first interview in a year, has been edited for clarity and brevity.
What do you like about this film?
I love David [Lowery], and it’s my third movie with him and he always assembles a really nice group of people around him. It’s such a nice experience to watch one of his movies. They all have a very gentle quality to them ... And Robert Redford, what is there to say? He’s a legend, an incredibly sweet guy and just sharp as a tack. It was lovely working with him.
Earlier this year you decided to step away from presenting the best actress award at the Oscars. Why?
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.
During your best actor Oscar campaign for Manchester By the Sea,
allegations resurfaced regarding two civil lawsuits from the making of your film I’m Still
Here, that were settled in 2010.
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. I had never had any complaints like that made about me before in my life and it was really embarrassing and I didn’t know how to handle it and I didn’t agree with everything, the way I was being described, and the things that were said about me, but I wanted to try to make it right, so we made it right in the way that was asked at the time. And we all agreed to just try to put it behind us and move on with our lives, which I think we deserve to do, and I want to respect them as they’ve respected me and my privacy. That’s that.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been listening a lot to this conversation, this public conversation, and learnt 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. And 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 was a crazy mockumentary, [a] very unconventional movie. The cast was the crew and the crew was kind of the cast and it was an unprofessional environment and, you know, the buck had to stop with me being one of the producers and I have to accept responsibility for that and that was a mistake. And 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.
I really did not know what I was responsible for as the boss. I don’t even know if I thought of myself as the boss. But I behaved in a way and allowed others to behave in a way that was really unprofessional. And I’m sorry.
I know you talked last year about taking your kids to women’s marches and trying to educate them.
Well, I’ve taken these lessons with me that I’ve learnt not just to work but to home and as dad and it informs how you parent. 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 tell them to own the mistakes they make.
Can you talk about how you have evolved and changed to create a safe working environment for people who work for you?
In this business women have been underrepresented and underpaid and objectified and diminished and humiliated and belittled in a bazillion ways and just generally had a mountain of grief thrown at them forever. And no one was really making too much of a fuss about it, myself included, until a few women with the kind of courage to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough.’
Those are the people who are kind of leading this conversation and should be leading the conversation. And I know just enough to know that in general I need to keep my mouth shut and listen and try to figure out what’s going on and be a supporter and a follower in the little, teeny tiny ways that I can. And we do that at our production company and I try to do it at home, and if I’m ever called upon by anyone to help in any way and contribute, I’d be more than happy to.
“I need to keep my mouth shut and listen and try to figure out what’s going on and be a supporter and a follower.” CASEY AFFLECK | Actor