Casey Affleck

Casey Affleck (birthname: Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt) has carved a distinct identity as an actor and a filmmaker from his movie-star brother Ben, taking on a roster of roles portraying troubled and morally torn American men, under the direction of several of his generation’s leading filmmakers, including Gus Van Sant, Steven Soderbergh, Andrew Dominik, Scott Cooper, Michael Winterbottom, David Lowery, Michael Almereyda, Kenneth Lonergan, and Christopher Nolan.

Affleck had his first big-screen role in a Van Sant drama, To Die For (1995), starring Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Matt Dillon; Affleck reunited with director Van Sant in very different movies, first the highly acclaimed, nine-Oscar-nominated Good Will Hunting (1997), co-written and co-starring (with Oscar-winning Robin Williams) Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who shared the Oscar for best original screenplay; then in Van Sant’s most radical project, the strange adventure drama, Gerry (2002), in which Casey Affleck was co-star with Damon, and co-writer and co-editor with Damon and Van Sant, and which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Affleck appeared as Fortinbras in Michael Almereyda’s creative rendering of Hamlet (2000), starring Ethan Hawke (as the Prince of Denmark), Kyle MacLachlan, Diane Venora, Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Bill Murray, and Sam Shepard, and premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Affleck then joined Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s movies crew in a supporting spot for the highly successful trilogy of Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Ocean’s Twelve (2004), Ocean’s Thirteen (2007), co-starring George Clooney and Matt Damon, with regulars Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts, grossing a cumulative global box office exceeding $1.1 billion.

Casey Affleck delivered one of his first truly impressive starring performances as the title character (based on author Jim Strouse, who wrote the script) in the drama-comedy Lonesome Jim (2006), directed by Steve Buscemi and with Liv Tyler, Kevin Corrigan, Mary Kay Place, and Seymour Cassel, and which was unveiled at the Sundance Film Festival. Affleck’s breakthrough arrived with his exquisite performance as Robert Ford in filmmaker Andrew Dominik’s brilliant Western for Warner Bros., The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), co-starring Brad Pitt, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeremy Renner, Sam Rockwell, and Zooey Deschanel, earning Affleck his first Oscar nomination as best supporting actor.

Affleck, as lead, joined brother Ben Affleck, who was debuting director as well as co-writer of the Dennis Lehane adaptation, Gone Baby Gone (2007), with Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan, and Titus Welliver, returning a solid $34 million gross for distributor The Ladd Company. Affleck starred in the darkest role of his career as a sociopathic Texas deputy sheriff in director Michael Winterbottom’s controversial adaptation of Jim Thompson’s 1952 crime novel, The Killer Inside Me (2010), with Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Ned Beatty, Elias Koteas, and Bill Pullman, launched at the Sundance Film Festival before a money-losing release by IFC Films.

Casey Affleck debuted as director/writer/producer/cinematographer/editor/co-star of the bizarre mock documentary, I’m Still Here (2010), centered on Joaquin Phoenix portraying a parody version of himself as a retired actor-turned-hip hop artist, with a roster of celebrities playing versions of themselves (including Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, Mos Def, Ben Stiller, Edward James Olmos, Jamie Foxx, Billy Crystal, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Bruce Willis, Robin Wright, High Grant, Natalie Portman, and Sean Penn), and which was released by Magnolia Pictures. Affleck co-starred in (for him) a rare mainstream Hollywood entertainment (bombing with a poor $153 million return on an $85 million budget) with the heist comedy, Tower Heist (2011), co-starring Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Tea Leoni, Michael Pena, and Gabourey Sidibe, under Brett Ratner’s direction.

Affleck did his first voice performance in the animated movie ParaNorman (2012), by writer and co-director Chris Butler and co-director Sam Fell, with the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, and John Goodman, and released by Universal/Focus Features. Affleck has starred in several highly distinctive and striking films by talented indie filmmaker

David Lowery, first in the crime drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013), with Affleck playing opposite Rooney Mara, with Ben Foster, Rami Malek, and Keith Carradine, and launching at both Sundance and the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics Week before an IFC Film release; and then co-starring with Mara in Lowery’s atmospheric A Ghost Story (2017), with Will Oldham, and released by A24 after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival; and Affleck joined star Robert Redford for director-writer Lowery’s amiable crime comedy-drama, The Old Man & the Gun (2018), based on David Grann’s 2003 New Yorker article about a prison escape artist, featuring Danny Glover, Tom Waits, and Sissy Spacek, and which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.

Casey Affleck co-starred with Christian Bale and Woody Harrelson in the intense revenge drama, Out of the Furnace (2013), directed and co-written by Scott Cooper, with a vivid supporting cast including Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, Zoe Saldana, and Sam Shepard. Affleck became a favorite casting choice for filmmaker Christopher Nolan, in both the sci-fi drama Interstellar (2014), starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway; and then in Nolan’s spectacularly successful biopic drama, Oppenheimer (2023), starring Cillian Murphy, and Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Benny Safdie, grossing a titanic $977 million for Universal and nabbing seven Oscars including picture, director, actor, and supporting actor.

Affleck achieved great acclaim for his unforgettable lead performance (winning him the Oscar) in director-writer Kenneth Lonergan’s superb drama, Manchester by the Sea (2016), with Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Tate Donovan, and Matthew Broderick Oscar for best actor, grossing $79 million for Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions and earning six Oscar nominations and two wins (including for Lonergan’s screenplay).

Affleck co-starred with Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Eric Bana in the Disney-produced and released true-life adventure, The Finest Hours (2016), directed by Craig Gillespie to poor returns ($52 million against $80 million costs) and middling reviews, and then Affleck returned to the heist genre for his starring role in the John Hillcoat-directed Triple 9 (2016), with the eclectic ensemble of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Clifton Collins Jr., Norman Reedus, Teresa Palmer, Gal Gadot, Woody Harrelson, Kate Winslet, and Michael K. Williams.

Casey Affleck did his second filmmaking turn as director/writer/producer as well as lead in the post-apocalyptic drama, Light of My Life (2019), co-starring Anna Pniowsky and Elisabeth Moss, and premiering at the Berlin Film Festival before a release by Saban Films. Affleck then joined the brilliant ensemble of director Mona Fastvold’s remarkable feminist pioneer-era drama, The World to Come (2020), starring Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, and Christopher Abbott, winning the Queer Lion at the Venice Film Festival and released to great reviews by Bleecker Street.

Affleck paired with Walton Goggins as real-life singer-musician brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson in the musical biopic, Dreamin’ Wild (2022), directed and written by Bill Pohlad and with Noah Jupe, Zooey Deschanel, and Beau Bridges, and released by Roadside Attractions. Affleck then co-starred with Laurence Fishburne in his first sci-fi movie, Slingshot (2024), directed by Mikael Håfström, with Emily Beecham and David Morrissey and distributed by Bleecker Street.