By Casey Affleck collecting his Oscar for 'Best Actor' in 2017 is remembered by many as the moment actress Brie Larson reluctantly handed the award over and refused to clap for him.
Affleck was facing two lawsuits for sexual harassment back in 2010 for behaviour on the set of I'm Still Here.
The lawsuits were settled out of court but Affleck's winning of the award prompted a huge backlash, and the #MeToo movement in Hollywood resulted in the actor being dropped as a presenter at the 2018 Academy Awards.
The actor broke his silence back in 2017 but failed to directly address his own behaviour saying, "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."
Now, in a new interview with Associated Press, the Manchester by the Sea actor has apologised and taken responsibility for contributing to an “unprofessional environment” on set.
“In this business women have been underrepresented and underpaid and objectified and diminished and humiliated and belittled in a bazillion ways and just generally had a mountain of grief thrown at them forever,” he said.
“And no one was really making too much of a fuss about it, myself included, until a few women with the kind of courage and wisdom to stand up and say, ’You know what? Enough is enough.’”
“Those are the people who are kind of leading this conversation and should be leading the conversation. And I know just enough to know that in general I need to keep my mouth shut and listen and try to figure out what’s going on and be a supporter and a follower in the little, teeny tiny ways that I can,” Affleck said.
