Casey Affleck

At 49 years old, Casey Affleck has this physical status:

Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt (born August 12, 1975) is an American actor and producer.

He began his career as a child actor (1988) and the PBS television series The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990).

He appeared in three Gus Van Sant films, including To Die For (1995), Good Will Hunting (1997), and Gerry (2002), as well as in Steven Soderbergh's comedy heist trilogy Ocean's Eleven (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007).

In Steve Buscemi's independent comedy-drama Lonesome Jim (2006), his first leading role was played. Affleck's breakthrough came in 2007 when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Support Actor in Coward Robert Ford's Western drama The Assassination of Jesse James and his brother Ben Affleck's version of the crime drama Gone Baby Gone.

I'm Still Here, the mockumentary who founded it in 2010.

He appeared in several hit films in the early 2010s, including Tower Heist, ParaNorman, and Interstellar, and he was lauded for his role as an outlaw in the indie film Ain't Them Bodies Saints. In the drama film Manchester by the Sea, Affleck starred as the lead actor in the 2016 drama film Manchester by the Sea.

Lee Chandler, a man mourning the death of his children, received the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Actor, as well as a Screen Actor Award nomination.

Affleck's leading role in the supernatural drama film A Ghost Story received critical notice in 2017.

Early life

Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, on August 12, 1975, to Christopher Anne "Chris" Boldt and Timothy Byers Affleck. The surname "Affleck" derives from Scottish roots. He has also ancestry from Ireland, German, English, and Switzerland. Heinrich Boldt, Affleck's maternal great-grandfather who is responsible for the discovery of the Curmsun Disc, emigrated from Prussia in the late 1840s. His mother, a Radcliffe College- and Harvard-educated elementary school teacher, was a mentor for the school. His father, a carpenter, a bookie, an electrician, a bartender, and a janitor at Harvard University, served sporadically as an auto mechanic, a carpenter, a bookie, a bartender, and a janitor. He had been a stage manager, producer, editor, and actor with the Boston Theatre Company in the 1960s. His father, who was "a disaster of a drinker" during Affleck's youth, was "a disaster of a drinker." At first, Affleck started acting by "reenacting what was happening at home" during role play exercises at Alateen meetings.

Affleck and his older brother, Ben, lived with their mother and visited their father every week after his parents divorced when he was nine years old. When he was ten years old, he learned to speak Spanish during a year spent traveling around Mexico with his mother and brother. Both brothers spent "much of our time together." We were obviously in different grades at school, but we had the same classmates." When Affleck was fourteen, he moved to Indio, California, to work as an addiction counselor. During visits to California as a child, he reconnected with his father: "I wanted to know him for the first time." Before that, the man I knew before that was just completely different."

Affleck and his brother were often invited to the theater by their mother, and families were encouraged to make their own home movies in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Because of their mother's acquaintance with a local casting director, the brothers appeared in local weather commercials and as movie extras. As a pupil at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Affleck appeared in numerous high school theater productions. If not for his high school drama coach Gerry Speca: "He kind of turned me on to acting, how it can be fun, and how rewarding."

Affleck, an eighteen, moved to Los Angeles for a year to pursue an acting career, and he and his childhood friend Matt Damon stayed together for a year. Despite having "the best possible first experience" when filming To Die For, he spent the majority of his time as a busboy at a restaurant in Pasadena. He wanted to attend George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to study politics. He enrolled at Columbia University in New York City shortly, where he followed the Core Curriculum for a total of two years. However, he did not graduate: "I would do a semester of school, go see a movie." Opportunities kept coming up that were impossible for me to turn down... By that time, I didn't really have roots at the college or a group of friends.

Personal life

In the late 1990s, Affleck was introduced to actress Summer Phoenix by her brother, Joaquin. They started dating in 2000 and appeared together in both the 2000 film Committed and a 2002 stage version of This Is Our Youth. The couple became engaged in January 2004 and married in Savannah, Georgia, on June 3, 2006. They have two sons, in Indiana August (b). Atticus (b. December 2007), May 2004) and Atticus (b. December 2007). Phoenix officially filed for divorce on August 1, 2017, citing "irreconcilable differences" as the cause, which was also signed later this year. It was an amicable divorce for Affleck, who continues to be friends.

Since January 2021, he has been in a relationship with actress Caylee Cowan.

"My father was a heroin addict, my grandmother was an alcoholic, and my brother spent some time in rehab, it's in our genes," Affleck said in a 2016 interview.

In 2008, Affleck shot an episode of documentary series 4Reality, in which he visited the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, and remarked on the progress they'd made as a result of "their own initiative and dedication, not because of our collective heart." Affleck praised Hillary Clinton and described Donald Trump as a "toxic fool" during his 2016 presidential run. Affleck's production firm, which he co-founded with John Powers Middleton, made several financial contributions to Trump in 2017. Affleck denied allegations: "I had no idea of it was never asked, and never would have approved it" affleck said in a tweet. The Trump administration's programs, as well as the values they represent, are antithetical to everything I believe in."

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Career

Due to his mother's friendship with Patty Collinge, a Cambridge-area casting director, Affleck acted professionally during his childhood. In addition to local weather commercials and movie extra work, he appeared as Kevin Bacon's brother in the PBS television film Lemon Sky (1988), directed by Collinge's husband Jan Egleson, and as a young Robert F. Kennedy in the ABC miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990). These early acting experiences "meant nothing more than a day off work" to Affleck, and he only started to think about a career as an actor when he first started to study high school. In Gus Van Sant's 1995 satirical comedy To Die For, he later moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career in earnest. Affleck met with co-star Joaquin Phoenix in Toronto during filming and became close friends. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers praised Affleck's appearance, saying he "skillfully captures] the pang of adolescence among no-hopers." However, Affleck had a "disappointing" experience while directing Race the Sun in 1996, and "as soon as the movie ended, I went to school."

Affleck played a supporting role in Van Sant's Good Will Hunting (1997), which was written by his brother and their childhood friend Matt Damon while studying at Columbia. Despite arranging a first meeting between Van Sant and his brother to discuss the project, Affleck was reluctant to leave college to participate in the film for a short time. He was eventually asked to act one of four friends in South Boston, a position designed for him, and he even improvised some of his lines. The Boston Globe's Jay Carr praised the "emotional subtleties and variety" of the performances, as well as "Casey Affleck's junior member of the quartet, who died to be considered as seriously as the others." Affleck's career prospects did not rise as a result of the film's critical and commercial success. His life was exposed to the public at the same time, and portions of his life became "part of pop culture and public life." He appeared in Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy, starring his brother, back in 1997. He returned to university for a year before deciding to concentrate on his acting career.

Affleck's career came to a "dark" period, with a string of supporting roles in critical and corporate failures. "It dawned on me late that I should be selective in what I do," he later said. He starred opposite Kate Hudson in the 1998 comedy Desert Blue (Anonymous). Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle found that although "interesting," his character was "completely underdeveloped." He made an uncredited cameo in the teen comedy American Pie in 1999 and appeared as a punk rocker romantically involved with Gaby Hoffmann and Christina Ricci's characters in the New Year's Eve ensemble comedy 200 Cigarettes. Affleck played a shy gardener accused of murder in the comedy Drowning Mona (2000), starring Danny DeVito. Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times acknowledged that his job was "well played" in spite of otherwise critical analysis. In 1999, Affleck appeared in Attention Shoppers and appeared in Ethan Hawke's Hamlet as a Fortinbra. In the romantic comedy Committed (2000), he appeared as the brother of Heather Graham's character, with Emanuel Levy of Variety lauding a "terrific" appearance. He appeared in American Pie 2 as a minor actor in 2001 and was also in the teen slasher film Soul Survivors. While Robert Koehler of Variety found him "bland," San Francisco Chronicle writer Carla Meyer said he did not make "much of an impression [but maybe] have been too ill to move." "Can you imagine a better film school than this?" Affleck's one positive experience during this period was working with Van Sant and cinematographer Harris Savides on Finding Forrester (2000) as Van Sant's assistant and technical advisor. Gus isn't only someone who loves a lot, but also one who has taught me, perhaps more than anyone else on film."

When Affleck was cast in Steven Soderbergh's heist comedy Ocean's Eleven (2001), starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Damon, he found a certain degree of commercial success. Soderbergh's original plan for Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson, Affleck and Scott Caan played Mormon brothers and wisdomcracking mechanics who help to break three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously. Although it was a "great, enjoyable social experience," Affleck spent a lot of his time on camera "being, like, 100 feet away from the camera in the background." In Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007), he would reprise his role.

In 2002, Affleck and Damon appeared in Van Sant's experimental drama Gerry, portraying two men who get lost while hiking in the desert. When living in neighboring New York apartments, Affleck, Damon, and Van Sant developed the idea and wrote the screenplay together. Mixed reviews were given to the film, which had little dialogue. "That was an amazing experience," Affleck, who rarely watches his own films, said of Gerry in 2016. At the Telluride Film Festival, I caught one scene out of place, and I can't believe no one stayed through the entire thing. It certainly works as a whole, but one scene stands out – "This is unbearable!" I thought. In a West End stage production of Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth, Affleck appeared with Damon and then-girlfriend Summer Phoenix in 2002. During rehearsals, Lonergan and Affleck became friends, and Affleck later appeared in Lonergan's workshop performances in New York.

In 2006's little-seen independent comedy-drama Lonesome Jim, directed by Steve Buscemi, Affleck's first leading role was in 2006. He moved from New York to Indiana with his parents, Liv Tyler, and began a friendship with her character. After watching his appearance in Gerry, Buscemi said he knew Affleck would be able to carry the film. "Affleck's interesting," Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post said. He certainly can't be a star in big films because his drawback is a voice that comes like a snivel drawn into a whine in a wet nasal passage.... But in other films, like this one, he's 100 percent authentic." Affleck "gets so much under the skin of this semi-charming jerk that the performance becomes both brave and aggravating," according to Boston Globe writer Ty Burr. Nevertheless, Stephen Holden of The New York Times said it "would be a better film if Mr. Affleck had the opportunity to shed more of the passive aggression within... a more astute actor would have used this blank slate to scramble a thousand telling details." He appeared in the romantic comedy The Last Kiss as a friend of Zach Braff's character in 2006.

Affleck had a breakthrough year in 2007 with the debut of two films based on critically acclaimed performances. The first of these performances was in the Western drama The Assassination of Jesse James by Robert Ford, in which he portrayed Robert Ford to Brad Pitt's Jesse James. Affleck auditioned repeatedly for the role. Although director Andrew Dominik had seen Affleck in Gerry, he had partly because of his "beautiful-sounding voice." The voice is the thing that really gets you." The New York Times' Manohla Dargis characterized Affleck's appearance as a "revelation" that "manages to make the character seem dumb and the actor wily and smart." Claudia Puig of USA Today named him a "true revelation [who] perfectly portrays the role," while Variety's Todd McCarthy said Affleck gave the "indelible appearance as the unsecure, physically impaired titling weakling." "The film belongs to Affleck [who] goes for broke in a remarkably brave and bizarre performance as the craven naif Bob," Dana Stevens of Slate said. And as we hope no harm will come to him, we can't help him." Affleck was nominated for the Golden Globe Award, Screen Actor Guild Award, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role.

Affleck was visited by his brother, who gave him the leading role in his directorial project, the Boston crime thriller Gone Baby Gone (2007), while filming The Assassination of Jesse James by Coward Robert Ford in Calgary. Though his brother was a first-time director and was in the middle of a career slump, Affleck maintained his optimism in the venture: "I felt like I knew him better than anyone else did." Affleck received more praise for his performance as an inexperienced private investigator charged with finding a missing child. "I'm not sure when Casey Affleck became such a good actor," Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said. Most actors want you to love them but [he] doesn't appear to worry or maybe he doesn't care about it." Jim Ridley of The Village Voice described him as "a major talent coming into his own," while Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said "the revelation is Casey Affleck, who has heretofore has been a rather wormy, uncharismatic screen presence." "I'd never stopped to think about Casey Affleck as a film actor before," the Boston Globe's Ty Burr wrote. "Under his tutelage, he blossoms as a leading man of richly watchable intelligence and intelligence."

Although Jesse James' assassination by Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone was a financial loss and a modest box office success, Affleck's acting career was widely believed to be at a turning point. However, he lost work when directing I'm Still Here (2010), a divisive tribute to his friend and brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix's musical career. Although Affleck later stated that it was "a planned, staged, and scripted work of fiction," there was a lot of media skepticism during filming about whether Phoenix's public behavior was art or a genuine breakdown. Claudia Puig of USA Today said that "whether truth or false, it's not particularly well made." It's frustrating, really, even amid Phoenix's most bizarreball and obsessive torment: what, exactly, is the point of a joke that no one truly comprehends?" It's "an interesting but half-baked exercise in persona deconstruction, celebrity politics, and meta-meta-entertainment, according to Ty Burr of The Boston Globe; the bulk of it is painful to watch." The film, according to Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, "turns out to be much more interesting to speculate about than actually watching." "We never thought people would even believe it was real," Affleck said of the 2016 case. In hindsight, we should have had a press junket and produced talk shows and expressed how ridicule was "a mockumentary."

In Michael Winterbottom's crime drama The Killer Inside Me (2010), Affleck funded I'm Still Here, but after running out of money, filming was postponed for a month to allow him to play a Texas serial killer. Affleck expressed regret for the film's graphic violence later in the film. Philip French of The Guardian called him "disturbingly brilliant," while Rolling Stone's Peter Travers praised "a mesmeric, implosively strong performance." Affleck "showcases his innate ability to project two thoughts in his head at once," the Los Angeles Times' Mark Olsen wrote, because he often gives away nothing in his face to show the firestorm clearly raging in his soul. Affleck appeared in Tower Heist (2011) and portrayed a character in the 2012 animation ParaNorman.

Affleck returned to regular acting roles in 2013 after spending "a substantial chunk of time" on I'm Still Here and dealing with the subsequent backlash. "It was ugliest for a minute." I kind of remembered why I liked acting and that I missed it." In David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013), Affleck and Rooney Mara played outlaw lovers in 1970s-era Texas. After a string of roles as "assassins or murderers, or even creeps," Affleck was drawn to the opportunity to play a character that "was a much better person than anyone expected." "Affleck captures the physicality and the feeling of a completely romantic outlaw," Shannon M. Houston of Paste said. "Affleck plays conflicted souls so well," Los Angeles Times writer Betsy Sharkey observed. "You want a criminal's parole," says the author. "He has a remarkable intuition when it comes to morally harming anti-heroes," Matt Pais of the Chicago Tribune said, "without trolling for our sympathy, Affleck's Bob is more than a series of behaviours; it's a thoughtful and deliberate effort." Sebastian Doggart of The Guardian said he "shows himself to be a master of the criminal stranger," while Chuck Wilson of The Village Voice found him "flat-out heartbreaking."

Affleck was "reinvigorated" by the opportunity to star opposite Christian Bale in the drama Out of the Furnace, and it reminded him why he loved acting. Claudia Puig of USA Today described his appearance as an Iraq War veteran living with posttraumatic stress disorder as "completely captivating." Bale and Affleck's chemistry is strong, raising the credibility of their brotherly relationship." Affleck "finds something fierce and noble in uneven content and a sense of humor," according to Chicago Tribune writer Matt Pais. He's not like every other actor in American cinema. The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday characterized the performance as "a revealing portrayal of a young man who pushes himself to the punishing physical limit in the search of both money and catharsis." Affleck "will come out particularly vulnerable on film," Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said, "which often works for a broken man like Rodney." Affleck and Jessica Chastain appeared in Christopher Nolan's science fiction film Interstellar as Matthew McConaughey's grown-up children, with Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter describing his character as "thinly developed." Affleck and producer John Powers Middleton established The Affleck/Middleton Project in 2014.

In 2016, Affleck appeared in three films, the first two of which failed financially. Affleck played an uncorruptible detective in John Hillcoat's crime drama Triple 9. "Arrrests our interest," Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said. I wonder if any other screen actor has ever been so focused and so absorbed at the same time. He believes more than he claims, and so we listen, hoping to get the part he's leaving out." "One of the most convincing leading men of his generation," Variety's Justin Chang said of him, while Brogan Morris of Paste said, "maybe Hollywood's best offbeat leading man" despite his undercooked appearance. Affleck played a taciturn engineer on board a sinking ship in Disney's disaster drama The Finest Hours. Even if the film isn't complex enough to rise to his level, David Sims of The Atlantic said he "gives the kind of measured, thought-out performance he's so keen to do." When he's on the screen, he animates an introverted character with subtle mental stimulation. "Manages to turn his man of few words into the film's most convincing figure," Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter said.

In Kenneth Lonergan's drama Manchester by the Sea, Affleck played Lee Chandler, a grief-stricken alcoholic loner. Matt Damon, one of the film's designers, had intended to appear in the film. Damon decided to resign unless scheduling conflicts made this impossible, and Affleck was recalled. Lonergan immediately agreed, remarking that Affleck was "the person to go to" after remarking that he was "the natural one to go to." Affleck had close friends with both men and had previously provided notes on early drafts of the script. The film was a huge success in the box office, and Affleck's appearance received a lot of flak. A.O. "One of the most tightly controlled screen performances in recent memory," Scott of The New York Times described it as "one of the most tightly controlled screen performances in recent memory." [He] conveys both Lee's inner avalanche of emotion and the numb decorum that holds it back."

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times praised his "quietly ferocious appearance" and his readiness to subpoena him to a frightening degree. "anchored by a barely vibrating central role by Casey Affleck in a dramatic breakout role he long deserved," Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post said. "He's given me marveling turns before [but] the way Affleck gradually introduces the man's bone-deep sadness and emotional trauma makes you believe that one of the best actors of this generation has simply been waiting to be coaxed out." For his work, Affleck was named on the National Board of Review, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Academy Award.

Affleck reteamed with the producer to star opposite Rooney Mara in the experimental drama A Ghost Story, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2017. Affleck's character dies at the outset, and he spends significant portions of the film without a white sheet with two eye-holes, haunting his childhood home. Despite limited time on camera, Affleck's appearance managed to connect, according to David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter. Affleck "has never been a straightforward actor to read," Peter Debruge of Variety said. He's a low-charisma mumbler who likes to hold his characters' emotions in check, making him the rare performer who can say as much with a sheet over his head as he does without. "cinema's finest mumbler," Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian described him as "cinema's finest mumbler." I can't even tell if he's speaking or just emitting high-pitched vibrations anymore." In 2018, Affleck starred opposite Robert Redford in The Old Man & the Gun, his third collaboration with Lowery.

In 2019, he wrote and appeared in the survival film Light of My Life. On February 8, 2019, it made its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and received lauding from film critics. Following a cancer diagnosis, Affleck appeared in Our Friend, opposite Dakota Johnson and Jason Segel, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival was the premiere of the film company in the United States. Affleck appeared and produced The World to Come, a film produced by Mona Fastvold, Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby.

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