Inside Casey and Ben Affleck’s sibling rivalry. Brothers one-upping each other or close mates?
AS Casey Affleck prepares to step out of brother Ben’s shadow at this year’s Oscars, the truth about their relationship and rivalry has been revealed.
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CASEY Affleck has long been the Solange to big brother Ben’s Beyonce.
Despite a few successes of his own and plenty of critical praise, Casey has always trailed his megastar, tabloid-regular sibling.
But now he’s stepping out of Ben’s shadow, as a sure thing for the Best Actor gong at next week’s Academy Awards, for his stirring performance in Manchester By The Sea .
Since they were kids, the boys have pursued similar interests, shared the same friends, moved cities at the same time and even married — and divorced — simultaneously.
Is this mirror image act a serious case of sibling rivalry? Are the two brothers motivated by a determination to one-up each other?
There’s plenty for each to be jealous about after all.
“Ben may get the attention, but Casey Affleck is the real star,” a New York Post headline screamed in 2013.
Similar sentiments have been bandied about over the years, with the general consensus being that Ben has the height, chin and Hollywood charm while Casey has the subtle intensity of a true thespian.
Or put simply, Casey is much better at acting.
“Yes, Ben has his talents as a director,” the Post wrote.
“And it’s not that he’s a consistently bad actor — but he’ll never be a great one. Whereas Casey is always breathtaking … there’s an edge to him, an angst that his brother will never have.”
But what Ben lacks in comparable talent he makes up for in the glitz and glamour he’s attracted since making his debut.
That same glossy sheen has always eluded Casey. Perhaps a bit by choice, the younger Affleck couldn’t get close to the level of stardom Ben enjoyed.
The pair began acting when they were kids, doing commercials and taking extra gigs in TV shows and movies.
Their mother was a politically active schoolteacher whose liberal leanings meant there were always arty types hanging around the house, including a casting director who got the boys work.
“You can find us in Field of Dreams and in The Good Mother,” Casey recalled to The Scotsman. “We’d get $20 and get to eat doughnuts all day.”
For the youngster, it was a bit of fun and some free sweets. For Ben, it was far more serious and he and the kid next door, Matt Damon, began hatching a plan for Hollywood.
Ben might’ve wanted it more but has conceded he’s not as good as Casey.
But it doesn’t seem to bother either of them. They’ve shrugged off claims of sibling rivalry on countless occasions.
“You get to where you have had enough failures and you realise that you’ve got one brother,” Casey told The Scotsman.
“You are going to ruin the relationship by being competitive over who gets to be in a movie? Are you kidding me?”
If there was any animosity or resentment, they argue, why would they work together so much?
At 20, Casey took some of the modest salary he banked from his debut big film role To Die For to buy Ben the computer he used to co-write Good Will Hunting with Damon.
Casey starred in the acclaimed film but the attention went to the other two, who won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. They’ve joined forces on several occasions since.
When their parents divorced, the boys were often greeted with an empty house after school and say they took care of themselves and each other.
In an interview with Parade, Casey gushed about how close he and Ben remain.
“I definitely think we’d go the distance for one another,” he said.
“I feel like he would look out for me and I would look out for him in whatever way we could.”
They married a year apart — Ben to Jennifer Garner, with whom he has three children, and Casey to Summer Phoenix, the sister of his best mate Joaquin Phoenix, and has two children.
And the brothers announced their respective divorces just six months apart too.
As well as no doubt supporting each other through those sad separations, Ben still has his little brother’s back in other ways.
In the lead-up to the 2010 release of Casey’s faux-documentary I’m Still Here, in which Phoenix ‘quit’ acting to pursue a rap career, it was Ben who urged him to reconsider.
“He stubbornly didn’t want to give in to people who thought this was all fake,” Ben told NYTimes Magazine.
“He took the two years where he would’ve been the hottest actor — (after a) Oscar (nomination) for Jesse James, his performance in Gone Baby Gone, where he got a lot of offers to do studio action movies and that sort of thing — and instead pursued this vision of a movie with his best friend.”
For two years, Casey insisted the film wasn’t a joke or a prank and so the eventual revelation that it was angered audiences and the media.
The film flopped and the pair retreated, but it was director Casey who bore the brunt of the backlash.
Work dried up, he was a Hollywood laughing stock and the whole thing almost sent him broke, while Phoenix rebounded much quicker.
So when Casey began his comeback, with critically favoured roles in Out Of The Furnace and Interstellar, followed by the lead in multi award-winning Manchester By The Sea, Ben was keen to back him.
He and Damon closed ranks as they have done before, the Huffington Post noted.
“They’ve championed and protected him throughout his career, sending a message to the media that they’re a united front,” a feature piece said.
Ben and Damon have been “particularly present” throughout Casey’s recent Oscars campaign, it said, “showing up smiling to premieres and posing for photos as a trio”.
It might be this show of unrelenting unity from two showbiz’s biggest and most powerful names that has kept sexual harassment allegations from derailing the best years of his career.
Two female colleagues who worked on I’m Still Here sued for sexual misconduct in 2010, alleging that Casey subjected them to inappropriate conduct, including bragging about his womanising exploits and getting into bed with one while she slept.
He denied any wrongdoing but quickly settled both claims.
On the few occasions he’s commented on it, Casey insists he’s moved on. In a recent New York Times profile, he said: “It was settled to the satisfaction of all. I was hurt and upset — I’m sure we all were — but I am over it.”
In the countdown to the Academy Awards in a few days’ time, Ben will be watching on with nervous pride to see if his little brother can nab a statue of his own.
Like at the Golden Globes in January, Ben might even fist pump and holler the air from the audience if Casey’s name is read out.
But he better get thanked this time. During his Globes acceptance speech, Casey noticeably neglected to give a shout out to his brother.
“He thanked a s*** load of people, I got to tell you,” Ben said on Jimmy Kimmel Show the week after.
If he wins, it will mark the first time two brothers have both won Oscars, Ben pointed out.
“It will also be the very first time that someone who wins an Oscar also pulls his pants all the way down at the urinal,” he quipped.
“The first person to win who is scared of butterflies … the very first person to win an Academy Award who asked his brother if Back To The Future was a true story.”
Originally published as Inside Casey and Ben Affleck’s sibling rivalry. Brothers one-upping each other or close mates?
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