Brie Larson Explains Why She Withheld Applause During Casey Affleck’s Oscar Win

If you have to ask why Brie Larson, an advocate for sexual-assault survivors, withheld applause during Casey Affleck's Oscar win last month, you're looking too deeply for an answer, Larson says.

Affleck, who won Best Actor honors for his role in Manchester by the Sea, has encountered many outspoken critics recently after two women separately accused him of sexually assault on the set of a 2010 film. Larson, a vocal proponent of survivors, announced him as the winner at the 2017 show, and told Vanity Fair her reaction — which was stoic among otherwise boisterous applause — was intentional.

“I think that whatever it was that I did onstage kind of spoke for itself,” she told the magazine at the premiere of Kong: Skull Island. “I’ve said all that I need to say about that topic.”

Affleck addressed the assault allegations for the first time in an interview with The Boston Globe on March 1, but specified no one involved in the case can speak to specifics.

“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,” he 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.”

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