In a deliberate move, the actress chose not to clap for the actor due to his sexual harassment allegations
At the Oscars awards ceremony on 26 February, Brie Larson presented the Best Actor award to Casey Affleck. However, unlike the audience who erupted in a round of applause for the Manchester By The Sea actor, Larson kept her arms to her side.
Of course, the internet noticed her silent stance.
All award season Brie Larson, who starred in a movie about sexual assault, had to present Casey Affleck all his awards. pic.twitter.com/L2WbQvSJNv
— Marnie (@ChrnclsOfMarnia) February 27, 2017
My aesthetic: Brie Larson not clapping for literal trash hole casey affleck pic.twitter.com/Ci5LWXLkCr
— Tyler Struble (@tyler_struble) February 27, 2017
The Room actress also had to present Affleck with an award at the Golden Globes ceremony on 8 January this year.
Yesterday (9 March), in an interview with Vanity Fair, the actress explained the motive behind her lack of applause for the actor’s win. “I think that whatever it was that I did on stage kind of spoke for itself,” she says. “I’ve said all that I need to say about that topic.”
As a sexual assault advocate, the actress chose not to applaud the actor because of his involvement in sexual harassment lawsuits. In 2010, the actor settled two lawsuits out of court after a female producer and cinematographer both filed separate lawsuits alleging sexual harassment against him.
In an interview with Net-a-Porter’s digital magazine The Edit, the actress spoke to Jane Fonda, conveying her thoughts on sexual abuse. “Having played two characters who were sexually abused, I’ve done a lot of work with victims of sexual abuse. We can’t take any steps backward in allowing people to think abuse is their fault. It’s the people-pleaser disease.”
Affleck said the The Boston Globe on 28 February: “I believe that any kind of mistreatment of anyone for any reason is unacceptable and abhorrent, and everyone deserves to be treated with respect in the workplace and anywhere else.”
And director Kenneth Lonergan has defended the actor before in a college newspaper. “Casey denounced the allegations as being totally fabricated,” he wrote. “Like most civil suits, this one was settled out of court by mutual consent on undisclosed terms. In other words nothing was proved or disproved.”
Larson has previously worked with rape survivors for the 2016 film Room in which she plays a kidnap victim who’s repeatedly raped and held captive for seven years. In 2016, Larson won the Best Actress award at the Oscars for Room.
At the 88th Annual Academy Awards performance, Lady Gaga performed a live rendition of ‘Til I Happens To You from the documentary Hunting Ground, which focuses on sexual assault on campuses. On stage, a group of male and female sexual assault survivors joined the singer and afterwards, Larson could be seen embracing each survivor.
