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Casey Affleck Breaks Silence About Sexual Harassment Controversy

This comes only days after he won Best Actor at the Oscars.

At Sunday night's Academy Awards you may have noticed actress Brie Larson refuse to applaud Casey Affleck's Best Actor win after she handed him the statuette.

If you're unfamiliar with the reasoning behind Larson's silent protest, it's due to the fact that Casey, the younger brother of Ben Affleck, faced two lawsuits — settled out of court for an undisclosed amount — over accusations of alleged sexual harassment leveled against him in 2010.

Casey Affleck poses in the press room with the Oscar for Best Actor for "Manchester By The Sea," at the 89th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California.

Just days after his win, which sparked quite a bit of backlash, Affleck gave an interview to the Boston Globe to address the controversy.

Reporter Mark Shanahan noted that when asked about the lawsuit brought by the two women who worked with the 41-year-old on the 2009 film "I'm Still Here," Affleck "sighed heavily."

"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," the "Manchester by the Sea" actor said.

"There’s really nothing I can do about it other than live my life the way I know I live it and to speak to what my own values are and how I try to live by them all the time," he continued.

Many people, including actress Constance Wu, have expressed their outrage over Affleck's Oscar nomination and win, saying that rewarding a man for his alleged sexual harassment has continued to play into sexism in Hollywood and violence against women.

The Boston Globe interview also stated that "both sides in the case are prohibited from commenting on the matter, and none of the people who are condemning him online know what happened."

Affleck has always denied the claims of these women, calling them "extortion."

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