Affleck shines a light on the darkest of tales
ACTOR Casey Affleck and screenwriter and director Kenneth Lonergan both believe in speaking their minds.
When Lonergan asked Affleck to read an early draft of his script for the film Manchester By The Sea, he expected — and wanted - Affleck to be blunt and to the point. And he was not disappointed.
Lonergan was already worried that the story of a Massachusetts man who experiences an unimaginable tragedy, moves away from home, and returns after the death of his brother to take care of his nephew, was pretty grim.
‘It was not like: “Oh, have a read; and here's a few notes,’ Affleck recalls. ‘He wanted an honest sounding board.
‘And I told him what I thought, and what needed to be done.’
Lonergan gives me the gist of it: ‘Casey said that he’d read other material of mine, and it
had moved him. “This,” he said, “feels like you’re sitting on my chest and you won’t get off.” Which was very astute. And he was right.’
So Lonergan went back to work and expanded the role of the nephew to incorporate the boy’s lifestyle: how he was coping with the death of his father while juggling two girlfriends, a gig in a band, as well as playing ice hockey at school.
‘You’re allowed to have a sense of humour on the back of great tragedy,’ Lonergan says.
The basic outline of plot had come, initially, from actors Matt Damon and John Krasinski; and at various points both men were either going to be in it or would be directing it. When that didn’t pan out, Damon magnanimously offered it to Affleck. It was a good decision, because Affleck is incredible in the movie. His character, Lee, is a janitor who can barely look the tenants he works for in the eye. Using flashbacks, we see that once he was the life of the party — until something happened that ripped him apart. Affleck offers a seamless study of a man who, one minute, is enjoying life to the full; and the next is functioning just enough to get through the day. I ask how he was able to convey that sense of sadness so skilfully. ‘I don’t think of some specific bad moment in my life,’ he says. ‘I guess I do, maybe, explore a little bit of the feelings left over from the many bad things in my life. It’s not that hard to get to feel sad. Sadly.’
There are also superb performances from Lucas Hedges, as the nephew, and Michelle Williams as Lee’s ex-wife.
The movie, which has been shown at film festivals in Sundance, Telluride, Toronto and, recently, London, will open here on January 13 and is likely to feature in the Bafta and Academy Award races.
Meanwhile, Affleck is going to join Robert Redford on set in Dallas, Texas, to shoot The Old Man And The Gun.
He will play a detective on the trail of a bank robber who just can’t go straight.
‘It’s my Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid,’ Affleck jokes.