Casey Affleck loves making movies with family
After a great experience on Company, Casey Affleck wants to work with his loved ones as often as possible.
Casey Affleck wants to work with his loved ones as often as possible.
The 51-year-old star's partner Caylee Cowan, mom Chris, and sons Indiana, 22, and 18-year-old Atticus - who he has with ex-wife Summer Phoenix - star in his new film Company and he "highly recommends" collaborating with people there is already an existing bond with.
Speaking at the Zurich Film Festival, he said: “I would rather just work with the people I love. I highly recommend it. For many years, I would leave them, shoot the film and miss them. Now, I plan on including my friends and my family as much as possible.”
Casey admitted his kids weren't overly enthusiastic about being in Company, but he was impressed by how they responded to his direction.
He said: “Neither one of them really wanted to be in it.
“Then my son Atticus said, ‘It’s during my spring break, so if you want me to do it, I’ll do it.’ Like he was doing me a favour. Strangely, he took all my directions without arguing, which is not the nature of our relationship.”
Casey and his older brother Ben Affleck have also worked together in the past, and he praised the Argo director and actor for having been "someone who has been very smart about the movies he chooses.”
He added: “Ben’s smart about making his films successful, but he’s not pandering. I know it because I’m there when he says: ‘I have an idea, but I’m not sure if I’m going to like it.’ It’s not: ‘I have an idea, but I am not sure I’ll be able to sell it.’”
While Company received its world premiere at the recent Venice Film Festival, Casey admitted he still hasn't finished it.
He explained: “I thought: Maybe a film festival can be a place where people share their work with the community, get feedback and then finish it? As a director, it’s scary to bring a movie I’m still working on, but there are things I want to change.”
Casey previously hailed working with his sons the "best professional experience" he'd ever had.
Speaking at a press conference for Company at the Venice International Film Festival, he said: "I think they grew up around [the entertainment industry] and had some interest in it and a sort of innate understanding of what it was.
“Like I did, my dad worked in the theatre for many years. And so it’s passed down, I suppose, which is a really nice thing. And they were willing to be a part of this...
They were amazing, and it made it the best professional experience of my life by far because I got to work every day with my kids and hang around. I would do it over and over again if I could.”
Casey explained how the casting process for Company was "pretty conventional" but it had been a struggle to fill the roles of two teenagers in the film so had his sons read the script and was delighted when they were able to officially join the project.
Company is set in winter 1975 and sees a mysterious woman arrive uninvited to a holiday party, where she tells the story of aging hermit Tom, who had rescued a stranded actress during a blizzard over 20 years earlier. To pass the night, the actress tells Tom a story of a farming couple who take in a troubled drifter amid a backdrop of grisly murders. It also stars Nick Nolte, Adelaide Clemens, Ben Mendelsohn, Scoot McNairy, and Emily Alyn Lind.
