Casey Affleck Is an Ally Now?

Casey Affleck, alleged sexual harasser, all around creep and Hollywood person, has been slowly but surely making his way back into a comeback nearly a decade after two women filed sexual harassment lawsuits against him in 2010. (In case you’ve forgotten: the suits were settled out of court for undisclosed amounts.)

Affleck paid a visit to Dax Shepard‘s Armchair Expert podcast to talk about #MeToo, I guess, while attempting to separate himself from the allegations against him. He’s an ally now!

He said:

“I can’t imagine who would not be supportive of the #MeToo movement but it’s very, very hard to talk about. And it scares me, mostly because the values of the #MeToo movement are values that are at the heart of my being, just the way I was raised.”

“It scares me”? It should scare him! Then he says this:

“The way that I’m thought of sometimes by certain people recently has been so antithetical to who I really am that it’s been frustrating and not being able to talk about it has been hard because I really wanted to support all of that, but I felt like the best thing to do was to just be quiet so 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 in support of the side that seems angriest and the anger’s directed at you. And I sort of decided, ‘Well I’ll just stay quiet mostly.’”

Doesn’t seem like he’s staying very quiet to me. There’s more:

“It’s not my experience but you have to respect that someone else had an experience and take that to heart and allow for it to be as possible as your memory of that experience.”

I’m sure the men awaiting Affleck’s return really got something out of these quotes. I’m just surprised he didn’t lean on his past rhetoric of promising to remain committed to “listening” and “learning.” Does this mean he’s learned? Don’t worry, everyone, he’s good now.