Last week, the New York Film Critics Circle gave Casey Affleck the Best Actor award for the brilliant “Manchester By the Sea,” making him an ever-stronger contender for the Oscar. (Earlier, he won that title from the Gotham Awards and the National Board of Review.)
It’s a very different landscape from earlier this year, when another guy was the buzzed-about favorite for that slot: Nate Parker, whose film “The Birth of a Nation,” and ensuing awards aspirations, were largely derailed by a rape accusation from his past. Parker was acquitted of all charges, but the bleak legal transcript of his case — and the fact that his accuser subsequently committed suicide — became a media storm that eclipsed his chances at awards glory.
So where’s the outrage regarding allegations about Affleck’s much more recent behavior, on the set of his 2010 movie “I’m Still Here”? A lengthy story in the Daily Beast examined, in detail, two women’s claims that Affleck was chronically aggressive, sexually suggestive and predatory toward them.
Shouldn’t this color our opinion of a guy currently enjoying a wave of celebratory press treatment? And, more troubling, how reflective is this of a gaping double standard in how we treat black and white men facing these accusations? (Or, for that matter, women charged with much less: Katherine Heigl was persona non grata in Hollywood for years for the simple crime of being a pain in the ass.)
Unlike Parker, who went on a half-hearted apology tour, Affleck has been essentially held to account by no one. On the contrary, various magazines and newspapers have published fawning features, building an image for him as the more fame-averse but wildly talented Affleck, finally getting his due.
I’ll give Parker this: At least he tried to have a conversation about male privilege and rape culture, even if he did handle it badly and come off as, well, privileged and rapey. I don’t see Affleck, a 41-year-old father of two, publicly acknowledging that he did anything wrong by his female employees. On the contrary, he vehemently denied the allegations at the time, calling them “preposterous and without merit,” sought to have the case taken to arbitration and eventually settled out of court with both women. Since then, he has offered only a blithe “people say what they want” in response to reporters’ questions about the incidents.
But then, why would he say more? He’s insulated by his A-lister big brother Ben and their bestie, Matt “Jason Bourne” Damon, both of whom have been enthusiastically joining him on the promotional circuit in the past few months to show their support. He’s spent years working in an industry where the status quo says white men can do anything they like to women, provided they have enough screen charisma or directorial vision.
Does this mean you shouldn’t see “Manchester By the Sea”? I don’t know the right answer to that. I learned about Affleck’s allegedly repellent behavior only after I saw the film and loved it.
My suggestion: If you haven’t, check out the legal details of the two women’s suits here and here and see if you want your box-office dollars to go to the man these two say made their workplace hell. (Again, those accusations were never proven in court, as Affleck settled without admitting wrongdoing. But if they are true, they are damning.)
Until Affleck makes some sort of public acknowledgment that this is a troubling issue for many viewers — women and men both, I’m hoping — I disagree with the notion that he deserves filmgoers’ unquestioning support. (Asked for comment from The Post, Affleck declined.)
Full disclosure: As a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, I cast a grudging, third-place vote for Affleck (my first choice was Denzel Washington for “Fences”). But critical awards aren’t the same thing as financial success. With apologies to “Manchester” director/writer Kenneth Lonergan and the rest of his talented cast and crew, I propose a viewer boycott until Affleck speaks out about the culture of sexual harassment in his industry.
Is he obligated to do that? Absolutely not; he may not even be able to specifically address the 2010 allegations per his settlement arrangement. But as an awards season frontrunner, in a year that’s seen more than its share of gleeful, unapologetic misogyny, it would be the right thing to do.