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Brie Larson’s Silent Yet Powerful Protest Against Casey Affleck

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 05:54 PST, Mar 12, 2017

Brie Larson presenting Casey Affleck with the Best Actor Oscar turned into a silent yet powerful protest amid the actor’s sexual harassment allegations, according to the Independent.

Brie Larson, a vocal advocate for sexual assault survivors, gave the younger brother of Ben Affleck a cold reception at the Oscars 2017, refusing to applaud to his win and making a very unenthusiastic face.

While it seems bizarre that the Academy chose Brie Larson, who has earned a reputation in Hollywood for being an outspoken advocate for sexual assault survivors, to present Affleck with the Oscar, there is a good reason why it happened this way. As the winner of the Best Actress Oscar last year, Larson was the traditional choice to present the Best Actor Oscar this year. Similarly, last year’s Best Actor winner – Leonardo DiCaprio – presented Emma Stone with her Best Actress award this year.

Brie Larson also presented Affleck with a Golden Globe in January for the same reason, and gave him a visibly frosty reception. And history repeated itself to the delight of millions of viewers watching the Oscars broadcast at home, as they were quick to notice that Brie Larson refused to clap and was visibly unimpressed as she read Affleck’s name on the Best Actor card.

Last year, Brie Larson won the Best Actress award for her role in Room, in which she portrayed a victim of physical and sexual abuse. Affleck, meanwhile, has been the subject of sexual harassment allegations, but they didn’t cast a shadow over the Manchester by the Sea actor’s awards glory this season.

Although it’s been almost seven years since the sexual harassment allegations against Affleck surfaced in 2010, the actor has faced a renewed round of criticism in the media after returning back to the Hollywood spotlight last year.

But there’s no telling how many people in the audience supported Brie Larson’s noiseless protest after Affleck’s Best Actor win, as his victory was met with a standing ovation that overshadowed any protest.

While their Golden Globes encounter was very cold, Brie Larson was forced to briefly hug Affleck after presenting him with the Oscar statuette, something some Twitter users noted the Room actress deserves an Oscar for.

The most bizarre thing about that hug was that just 12 month ago, on that same stage, Brie Larson individually hugged sexual assault survivors as they left the Oscars stage after Lady Gaga’s powerful performance of “Till It Happens To You” last year.

And 12 months later, Brie Larson is forced into hugging the man who has been accused of sexual harassment.

Not only did Brie Larson start a silent protest at this year’s Oscars, she also made Emma Stone, who took home the Best Actress award, cry, according to the Huffington Post.

While no one doubted that Stone would win an Oscar for her superb performance in La La Land this year, her Best Actress win didn’t make her acceptance speech any less emotional and tear-jerking. And Brie Larson, Stone’s Hollywood friend and last year’s Best Actress winner, was there to fuel those emotions even further.

After Stone delivered a heart-wrenching acceptance speech, in which she joked she would thank and hug her friends after she could breathe again, she went backstage, where Brie Larson was waiting for her. As captured on video, Brie Larson opened her arms to embrace Stone in a hug, and both actresses started crying. The moment was so touching it probably made even the coldest people’s hearts melt. Shortly after embracing Stone, Brie Larson took to Instagram to share a snap of the tear-jerking moment and wrote that watching your friends win is even “better than winning.”

Brie Larson can be seen in Kong: Skull Island starring alongside Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson. The Jordan Vogt-Roberts-directed film hit theaters on March 10.

Brie Larson will debut her highly-anticipated Marvel character Captain Marvel in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and then a year later she’ll be seen in a standalone Captain Marvel film.

[Featured Image by Christopher Polk/Getty Images]

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