Casey Affleck said some surprisingly thoughtful words about #MeToo, no joke
I assume Casey Affleck is currently promoting Light of My Life, the “post-apocalyptic” movie where Casey stars and directed himself. The film is about a “world without women,” the ladies having conveniently died off from a “plague” which may or may not be toxic masculinity. I have no idea what to expect from Casey’s promotional tour for this film, but given that he’s the director too, I imagine he’ll do more interviews than he has in the past few years. Casey won the Best Actor Oscar just a few years ago, but his (ultimately successful) Oscar campaign involved a lot of conversation about the two sexual harassment lawsuits which he settled out of court back in 2010. Casey hasn’t really known what to say about the #MeToo era, but he tried to speak about it again with Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast. Some quotes:
Lessons learned from the Me Too Movement: ‘Who would not be supportive of the MeToo movement? That’s an idea that’s even out there? That there are some people saying we do not believe in equality and we think the workplace should be a dangerous place for certain people and not for others. That’s preposterous.’ Affleck was quick to point out that the subject scares him and that it’s still ‘very hard to talk about because the #MeToo movement are values that are at the heart of my being; just the way I was raised.’
He wanted to talk about what happened in 2010 & the Me Too Movement: ‘I really wanted to support all but I felt like the best thing to do was to just be quiet, so that I didn’t seem to be in opposition to something that I really wanted to champion. It’s a tough spot to be in, especially if you really do appreciate and want to be a support of the side that seems angriest, and the anger is being directed at you.’
Making the distinction between the worst cases of misconduct and the tamest in the post #MeToo era. ‘[It] isn’t about, oh well this isn’t so bad, and that’s really horrible. It’s that it’s systemic. It is accepted culturally at it’s tamest manifestation of it and at its worst, and that it all needs to be turned on its head, eradicated, not allowed for, and that kind of like lightning bolt I think is effective.’
He was in charge in 2010: After the allegations against Affleck came out, two other women employed on the set of I’m Still Here defended his conduct on set, insisting they had never seen anything out of the ordinary. He said he appreciated the gesture but confessed that he tolerated and contributed to an unprofessional environment, due in part, to a lot of partying during the shoot. ‘I think it’s a lesson that I had to sort of learn and be humble about; I was the producer. I was technically the boss,’ he said.
I rolled my eyes so hard at that last part: “I think it’s a lesson that I had to sort of learn and be humble about; I was the producer. I was technically the boss…” Like he merely willfully turned a blind eye to misconduct (which he did as well) and didn’t actively harass and behave inappropriately with women. And he was the director and the producer. Now, just to give him a slight bit of credit (I know, I know), I like that he said this: “It isn’t about, oh well this isn’t so bad, and that’s really horrible. It’s that it’s systemic. It is accepted culturally at it’s tamest manifestation of it and at its worst.” That’s something his bro Matt Damon refused to acknowledge, that it wasn’t about degrees of misconduct or harassment, it was about the systemic culture of hurting and harassing women.
As for Casey saying that he made a choice to be quiet because he secretly supported the movement… I actually pondered that for a moment and decided that Casey would have been bashed for whatever he said or didn’t say, so staying quiet probably was his best option. It is what it is.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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