Ian West Ian West

IN 2017 AFTER Casey Affleck won an Oscar for Best Actor in Manchester By the Sea, people weren’t too pleased.

That’s because several years prior, the actor and director was sued by two separate women for sexual harassment while he was working on the set of 2010 movie I’m Still Here. Both of the lawsuits resulted in settlements and after the accusations resurfaced last year, Affleck dropped out of the 2018 Oscars, where he was set to present an award.

In a new interview with AP, the 42-year-old said that “this was the right thing to do”.

Just given everything that was going on in our culture at the moment.

AP brought up the allegations made against Affleck, and said, “We haven’t heard from you since #MeToo and Time’s Up became a big talking point in the culture.” They continued by asking Affleck, “Has that made you reflect on or reevaluate anything about the experience or the atmosphere on that set?” Here’s how he responded:

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 make it right, so we made it right in the way that was asked at the time.

And we all agreed to just try 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. And That’s that.

Chris Pizzello Chris Pizzello

Affleck then claimed that since the #MeToo movement began, he has “moved from a place of being defensive to one of a more mature point of view” where he tried to find his own culpability. Speaking of the incidents that resulted in a lawsuit in 2008 and 2009, he said:

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.

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.

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