Casey Affleck on #MeToo allegations, why he stayed 'quiet' amid sexual misconduct scandal

Casey Affleck is ready to talk about the #MeToo movement.

The "Manchester by the Sea" actor went on "Armchair Expert," a podcast hosted by Dax Shepard, where he discussed how he dealt with the misconduct allegations against him.

In 2010, Affleck was sued by two women who worked on his film "I'm Still Here." Their lawsuits accused him of repeated sexual harassment and disparagement. One woman, a cinematographer, claimed Affleck drunkenly crawled into bed with her without her consent while she was asleep. The other, a producer, alleged Affleck grabbed her "violently" to intimidate her into staying with him in his hotel room.

Affleck, 43, denied the allegations and threatened to counter-sue. Instead, he settled out of court for undisclosed sums in 2010.

"The way I've been thought of by certain people recently has been so antithetical to who I am as a person that it's frustrating, and not being able to talk about it has been hard because I really wanted to support all of that, but I felt like the best thing to do was just be quiet so that I didn't seem to be in opposition to something that I really wanted to champion," he said during the podcast.

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Affleck said he made a concerted effort to avoid discussing the allegations in public.

"I sort of decided, 'Well I'll just stay quiet mostly,' " he said. "I think most people don't really care to look at details of things and so suddenly your name is being mentioned in a group of people."

Affleck said he made mistakes filming the movie that led to the lawsuits.

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“There was a ton of partying, because that was the content of this at times documentary, at times mockumentary,” he said. “We’re recording everything... It was confusing for everybody and it was deliberately so. And that’s my responsibility. The intention was to have the crew as a part of the movie. I don’t know how much they knew they were a part of the movie… It was a big mess and it was not something that I would do again. I would be way smarter, more sensible, more sensitive to it being a workplace if I were to try to do this again.”

He said after the allegations against him became public, he shared his side of the story with those closest to him.

"It is and remains kind of an ugly, difficult, painful period of, in this community and in this industry and in the culture and general," he said. "And so for me, it was pretty hard to sit by for years and feel like even by people who I really like and respect who didn't know me, sort of feel like piling on a little bit and to have to explain to people who I know and love who even if they say like 'Dude, are you kidding me? You don't have to explain this. I know who you are.' You still feel compelled to do that."

The younger brother of Ben Affleck said he is able to put his problems in perspective.

“I don’t think there’s closure until you finally punch the big clock,” he continued. “It’s going to just keep going. It shapes who you are. Everybody in life has, like, gigantic challenges and even tragedies and they think they won’t get through them and they keep going and life goes on. The challenges of this don't really compare to those. I’ve seen people who have been dealt much worse hands.”

And overall, Affleck said he feels the #MeToo movement is addressing an important problem.

"I think on the one hand it's like a sweeping judgement, and on the other hand there's been a lot of talk about can we even make these kinds of distinctions between the worst cases and what is perceived as the tamest examples of it. I think that there's some truth in that," Affleck said. "It isn't about 'Oh well this isn't so bad, and that's really horrible.' It's that it is systemic. It is accepted culturally... It all needs to be turned on its head, eradicated, not allowed for. That kind of lightning bolt I think is effective."

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Contributing: Maria Puente

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Casey Affleck on Me Too, why he was quiet in sexual misconduct scandal