Alleged Abuser Casey Affleck Will No Longer Be Presenting Best Actress At The Oscars
Meanwhile, this year's Best Actor favourite has ALSO been accused of abuse.
Casey Affleck has withdrawn from presenting the Best Actress award at this year’s Oscar ceremony, in light of a number of sexual harassment allegations that were leveled against him in 2010.
According to Deadline, last year’s Best Actor winner recently informed the Academy that he would not be attending the ceremony on March 4. It is tradition for the previous year’s Best Actor to present the award for Best Actress, and vice versa. That said, given the year that Hollywood has had, it’s probably a tradition the Academy is quite happy to put aside.
thus ends my dream that Frances McDormand would kick Casey Affleck in the nuts on the Oscars stage https://t.co/V8zeIKZTlG
— Kevin O’Keeffe (@kevinpokeeffe) January 25, 2018
Casey Affleck won’t present the Best Actress award because he has to stay at least 500 feet away from most of the nominees, probably.
— Marie Connor (@thistallawkgirl) January 25, 2018
Casey Affleck won’t be presenting Best Actress at the Oscars so maybe they can just have Denzel Washington do since he should be doing it anyway. #Oscars
— Erik Anderson (@awards_watch) January 25, 2018
A spokesperson for the Academy said they appreciated Affleck’s decision, and that it would “keep the focus on the show and on the great work of this year”.
In 2010, Affleck was sued by two female crew members who worked on the set of his film I’m Still Here. Producer Amanda White and director of photography Magdalena Gorka claimed that Affleck said they should have sex with male members of the crew, and that he encouraged the crew to harass them. Gorka also claimed that Affleck once climbed into her bed wearing only underwear and a t-shirt.
The actor eventually settled both lawsuits for an undisclosed sum of money, while continuing to maintain his innocence.
The allegations resurfaced following the release of Manchester by the Sea, for which Affleck eventually won his Oscar. Actress Brie Larson, who presented the award, famously opted not to applaud after reading Affleck’s name. She later told Variety that her behaviour on stage “spoke for itself”.
My aesthetic: Brie Larson not clapping for literal trash hole casey affleck pic.twitter.com/Ci5LWXLkCr
— Tyler Struble (@tyler_struble) February 27, 2017
For what it’s worth, the current favourite to win Best Actor this year is Gary Oldman, who has been accused by his ex-wife of domestic abuse. So yeah, there’s also that.