Casey Affleck photographed in September 2026 Courtesy of Getty It was Casey Affleck‘s turn in the Zurich hot seat on Monday as the U.S. star spoke candidly at a masterclass before the Swiss film festival premiere of his third directorial feature, Company.
The conversation with the event’s CEO Christian Jungen was career-spanning and charted the Boston native’s rise to international fame, from his move to L.A. as an aspiring actor and early career decisions to his Oscar-winning turn in Manchester by the Sea (2016) and becoming a director.
Of course, you can’t host an Affleck and not discuss Matt Damon, the childhood best friend of Casey’s older brother, Ben. He humorously played down the rivalry between the men, but praised their shared experience in theater growing up on the East Coast. “We all had the same theater teacher, […] and lots of actors came through this one theater department. We were in a big public school, and we just had this great theater teacher, and he made kids fall in love with theater and acting,” he said, prompting laughter as he continued: “Matt was always a bit of a showoff. [He was] outgoing and would do talent shows and stuff. And there was no doubt where he was headed, but the rest of us were trying to figure it out.”
Related Stories
Movies Naomi Watts Praises Husband Billy Crudup for Backing Her Menopause Activism: "So Sweet -- and Sexy"
Movies Anna Kendrick Is "Over the Moon" About Directing 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo'
The Good Will Hunting and Ocean’s Eleven actor said he has seen Damon’s Oscar-buzzy outing in Christopher Nolan‘s box office behemoth The Odyssey, but takes solace in the fact that all three of them have pursued pretty varied paths. “We’re all very different in a weird and very obvious way,” began Affleck. “Matt is a super talented actor. He’s a funny case because he’s a very talented actor who has a kind of movie star persona, a matinee idol appeal, at the same time, which Ben and I don’t really have. Ben seems more like a movie star and has leaned into the leading man thing right from early on,” but Affleck’s favorite performances from the pair are when they’re in character-led roles. “When Matt did The Talented Mr. Ripley, I thought he was just incredible.”
Jungen referenced an old Variety profile in which Affleck was characterized as a Hollywood outsider. Initially, Affleck was “mad” about that. “I saw that and I thought, ‘Man, I’ll forever be thought of as an outsider, no matter what I do.’ You can win an Oscar, or you can do a big giant studio movie, and I think the public just thinks of people one way, and then it takes a lot to change that.” An ensuing epiphany was liberating, and allowed him to reclaim the label. “I was sitting with it for a second, and I thought, ‘Am I crazy? I love that.’ I don’t want to be an insider. I love being an outsider. I would much rather be an outsider in Hollywood than be an insider in Hollywood. I don’t think it’s a great culture. I don’t love the movies that are made by Hollywood. I don’t love the system of Hollywood, and I’m very happy being thought of as an outsider,” he said.
In response, Jungen pointed out to the star that he continues to live in L.A. and, like Damon, has featured in Nolan projects: specifically Interstellar (2014) and Oppenheimer (2023), so he’s no stranger to a commercial hit. Affleck had a particularly amusing — and maybe slightly awkward — anecdote to share when asked about seeking directorial advice from the British Oscar winner. “I did once call him,” said Affleck about Nolan. “I was driving home from school with my son, and we were talking about Tenet, and we were disagreeing about it. And I thought, ‘Let’s settle this.’ And we called Chris, which probably was a mistake. I [actually] called Emma [Thomas], his wife, and I said, ‘I just have a quick question,’ and we got him on the phone and asked him something that we probably could have just looked at [on] Reddit and figured out.”
Affleck wanted it from the source, he confessed, but once Nolan talked them through it, the actor was embarrassed that he even asked. “It sounded so obvious. Then we said, ‘Thank you.’ And that was it. And I haven’t called back, and he hasn’t called me,” he laughed.
The actor-turned-filmmaker lauded Nolan as a director, and though admitting he doesn’t look to anyone in particular as an inspiration, cited both Nolan and Gus Van Sant (who directed Affleck in 2002’s Gerry) as auteurs who “just make stuff that they’re really interested in.” He continued: “Nolan is probably a great example of that. Despite the fact that he makes these gigantic, hugely popular, successful movies, I don’t think that he’s doing things that he thinks will please other people.”
On Affleck’s Oscar win as a grieving janitor in Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea, he explained it’s all still rather a daze — and “mildly traumatic.” The actor said: “I had all these people in this category that were heroes of mine — Viggo Mortensen and Denzel [Washington], and then peers of mine who are great — Andrew Garfield and Ryan Gosling. It sounds like a cliche, but I was just very happy to be there. I didn’t really expect to win because I thought Denzel was going to win, and that was totally fine.” He admitted to have not planned a single word of his speech, and was mortified after leaving the stage and realizing he forgot to thank “all the people you’re supposed to thank,” including Lonergan and his kids.
Affleck recalled none other than Leo DiCaprio coming to the rescue: “I just mumbled my way through it and got off stage, so it was mildly traumatic. But I remember walking off stage and seeing, for some reason, Leonardo DiCaprio standing there in the wings, and I was stuck in the moment of terror and disorientation, and he was just laughing and gave me a big hug, and then I sort of felt better.”
Company, currently making its way through the festival circuit, is a mystery set on a winter night in 1975, with the filmmaker, Nick Nolte, Ben Mendelsohn, Emily Alyn Lind and Sydney Chandler all co-starring, alongside his two sons, Atticus and Indiana Affleck. His directorial debut, I’m Still Here (2010), “was very experimental, and people mostly just hated it.” His second, Light of My Life (2019) premiered during the pandemic so its reception was difficult for Affleck to get a read on. With the Venice-premiering Company, he was so keen for it to make the rounds at the fall festivals that he’s screened a not-quite-finished version and is using audience reaction as feedback.
“It’s scary as a director to bring a movie that I’m still working on,” he said. “We’re still tightening it and working on the music, and so to show it to an audience full of people and know myself that there are things I want to change is difficult, but once it’s finished, I’ll let it go. I promise.” The movie is dedicated to his parents, both of whom died earlier this year.
Affleck was part of a Zurich masterclass slate that also included John Turturro, Naomi Watts and Anna Kendrick. The 22nd edition runs Sept. 24-Oct. 4.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Subscribe Sign Up
