Winning an Oscar should be a triumphant time for an actor. However, in 2018, when Casey Affleck won his Best Actor Oscar for “Manchester by the Sea,” the win was mired in controversy as he was embroiled in a #MeToo situation. And since then, Affleck has stayed relatively quiet, with his films being released with very little promotion from the actor. In a new interview, he explained why that is and why he’s decided to stay quiet about the #MeToo movement, in general.
The actor spoke to Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast (via IndieWire) about how he thinks it’s “preposterous” that anyone would be against the #MeToo movement, but he admitted that he’s been “scared” to talk about it because of his recent controversies.
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“Mostly because the values of the #MeToo movement are values that are at the heart of my being,” he added. “Just the way I was raised, they are baked into my own value system having been raised by a mother who didn’t let us watch ‘Dukes Of Hazzard’ when we were like eight years old because it was sexist.”
He added, “The way that I’m thought of sometimes by certain people recently has been so antithetical to who I really am that it’s been frustrating. And not being able to talk about it has been hard because I really wanted to support all of that, but I felt like the best thing to do was to just be quiet so I didn’t seem to be in opposition to something that I really wanted to champion.”
Affleck did speak a bit more about the accusations that occurred while he was filming his documentary/mockumentary “I’m Still Here.” He explained that the way the film was created, with a lot of partying and unclear boundaries, led to the issues that were raised against him.
“It was a big mess and it’s not something I would do again. I would be way smarter, more sensible, more sensitive to it being a workplace if I were to try to do this again,” he said.
Affleck is currently promoting his upcoming film “Light of My Life,” which premiered at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. The film, which he wrote and directed, as well, arrives in theaters and VOD on August 9.