Casey Affleck says it 'scares' him to talk about #MeToo movement

Oscar winner Casey Affleck says it terrifies him to talk anything in relation to the #MeToo movement in the aftermath of the sexual harassment allegations against him.

The actor-director talked about the accusations against him during his appearance on Dax Shepard's podcast "Armchair Expert".

"It is very, very hard to talk about, and it scares me," Affleck said when asked about the #MeToo movement.

The 43-year-old actor was accused of sexual harassment by two female co-workers while making the 2010 mockumentary "Im Still Here", which he directed.

Though he settled the lawsuits that stemmed from the allegations, they still came back to haunt him during his Oscar campaign for the 2017 feature "Manchester by the Sea".

 

Affleck told Shepard that he took the decision to remain "quiet" in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement because he did not want to be misinterpreted as someone who opposes it.

"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," he added.

The actor said it baffles him to see that there are people in the world who are not in support of #MeToo.

"Who would not be supportive of the #MeToo movement? That's an idea that's even out there? That there are some people saying we do not believe in equality and we think the workplace should be a dangerous place for certain people and not for others. That's preposterous," Affleck added.

He said the values of #MeToo are "at the heart of my being".

"Just the way I was raised, they are baked into my own value system having been raised by a mother who didn't let us watch Dukes Of Hazard' when we were like eight years old because it was sexist," he added.

Affleck is currently promoting his next directorial "Light of My Life", which releases in the US on Friday.