Casey Affleck Apologizes for 'Unprofessional' Behavior, Comments on Withdrawing From Oscars 2018 Ceremony

Casey Affleck is giving his first major interview where he’s admitting he contributed to an “unprofessional environment” on the set of his mockumentary film I’m Still Here back in 2010.

If you don’t know, he settled two lawsuits after accusations of sexual harassment emerged from the set.

“I contributed to that unprofessional environment and I tolerated that kind of behavior from other people and I wish that I hadn’t. And I regret a lot of that. I really did not know what I was responsible for as the boss. I don’t even know if I thought of myself as the boss. But I behaved in a way and allowed others to behave in a way that was really unprofessional. And I’m sorry,” Casey told the AP. “I wish I had found a way to resolve things in a different way. I hate that. I had never had any complaints like that made about me before in my life and it was really embarrassing and I didn’t know how to handle it and I didn’t agree with everything, the way I was being described, and the things that were said about me, but I wanted to try to make it right, so we made it right in the way that was asked at the time. And we all agreed to just try to put it behind us and move on with our lives, which I think we deserve to do, and I want to respect them as they’ve respected me and my privacy.”

In addition, Casey commented on choosing not to present the Best Actress Academy Award at the 2018 Oscars. It is tradition for the Best Actor Oscar winner of the previous year to present the award the following year.

“I think it was the right thing to do just given everything that was going on in our culture at the moment. And having two incredible women go present the best actress award felt like the right thing,” he added.