Casey Affleck: Everyone deserves to be treated with respect in the workplace
Most of us are still assessing what Casey Affleck’s Oscar win means in the larger sense. Just taken at face value, I think Casey’s win means that more people watched and liked Manchester by the Sea as opposed to watching and liking Fences. Fences had great, dialogue-heavy performances, but let’s be real: it was not a good movie. A good play, perhaps. But not a good movie. While I didn’t think Casey should have won an Oscar (full-stop) and he shouldn’t have won for his dead-inside performance in Manchester, I had also gotten used to the idea that he was probably going to win over Denzel, which is why I kind of shrugged with his win.
One of the best pieces written about Casey’s Oscar win, in my opinion, was this excellent Elle article connecting Casey’s win with Mel Gibson’s resurgence, that awful Last Tango in Paris story and the presidency of Donald Trump. As we covered in the months leading up the Oscars, Casey was accused of sexual harassment by two women while working on I’m Still Here, the documentary about Joaquin Phoenix being a dumbass. Casey barely had to say anything in his own defense throughout his Oscar campaign because media outlets made an effort to never question him about the civil suits he settled out of court with both of his accusers. Well, following his Oscar win, Casey has deigned to speak about it with more directness than he did pre-Oscars. He spoke to his hometown newspaper, the Boston Globe, saying about the sexual harassment accusations:
Asked about those sentiments Tuesday, Affleck paused and sighed heavily. He said both sides in the case are prohibited from commenting on the matter, and none of the people who are condemning him online know what happened. But, he added, “I believe that any kind of mistreatment of anyone for any reason is unacceptable and abhorrent, and everyone deserves to be treated with respect in the workplace and anywhere else.”
“There’s really nothing I can do about it,” Affleck added wearily. “Other than live my life the way I know I live it and to speak to what my own values are and how I try to live by them all the time.”
It’s actually a well-crafted statement and he should have said this before the Oscars. Even if the two accusers were lying – and let me be clear, I don’t think they were lying – why not come out and say this months ago? Why not say, “maybe I haven’t always treated my coworkers with the respect they deserve but I believe strongly in learning from my mistakes and doing better”? He probably didn’t say any of this before the Oscars because he knew it would lead to more questions.
Speaking of more questions, Casey used his platform at the Independent Spirit Awards to call Donald Trump’s policies “abhorrent” and “un-American.” Which is interesting because Casey’s production company donated $5000 to Trump’s transition fund, Trump for America. Page Six spoke to Casey about this and this is what he said:
Affleck told Page Six that he is “appalled that a donation may have been made in my company’s name by someone I work with. I had no knowledge of it, was never asked and never would have authorized it.” He added, “I will get to the bottom of it. The policies of the Trump administration, and the values they represent, are antithetical to everything I believe in.”
Affleck’s producing partner John Powers Middleton has reportedly been a GOP backer and gave funds to a Trump super PAC.
So after sexually harassing a bunch of women he worked with, the only people Casey Affleck employs now are Trump supporting dudes, basically.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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