Brie Larson has addressed her refusal to applaud Casey Affleck when she presented him with the Best Actor Oscar at last month’s Academy Awards.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, the actress and advocate for sexual assault survivors said:
“I think that whatever it was that I did onstage kind of spoke for itself. I’ve said all that I need to say about that topic.”
Notably, she didn’t attribute her lack of applause to anything other than what was widely speculated online: that she didn’t want to celebrate the achievements of a man accused by two women of sexual harassment (Affleck settled out of court with both women).
My aesthetic: Brie Larson not clapping for literal trash hole casey affleck pic.twitter.com/Ci5LWXLkCr
— Tyler Struble (@tyler_struble) February 27, 2017
She could have a) brushed it off b) offered some other explanation or c) refused to comment at all. But she didn’t.
The actress – who combines her filmmaking with activism – became a strong advocate for survivors of assault and rape after her Oscar-winning turn in ‘Room‘, playing a woman kidnapped as a teen and repeatedly assaulted by her captor.
“Having played two characters who were sexually abused, I’ve done a lot of work with victims of sexual abuse,” she said in a searingly honest interview with Jane Fonda for ‘The Edit‘, explaining that she’s on the receiving end of plenty of backlash for her activism.
“It can get wild out there when you start speaking up, especially on social media. I’ve been getting a lot of backlash recently. People say I’m an ‘elite;’ that I don’t know what I’m talking about. When so many people tell you that, it’s easy to start believing it.”
And in stark contrast to her actions at this year’s ceremony, last year’s Oscars saw her greeting and hugging every single sexual assault survivor who accompanied Lady Gaga onstage for her bone-chilling performance of ‘Till It Happens To You‘.
Then best actress fave Brie Larson gets up, hugs each, every one. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/OI3cFZaLtl
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) February 29, 2016
Photo: Eddy Chen / Getty.
