The INSIDER Summary:
- Brie Larson didn't clap for Casey Affleck after handing him his Oscar.
- Larson said that her action "spoke for itself."
- Affleck has been accused of sexual harassment.
Brie Larson does not seem like she's happy with Casey Affleck.
At this year's Academy Awards, Larson — who won the best actress Oscar in 2016 for playing the survivor of a brutal sexual assault in "Room" — introduced the award for best actor.
She gave it to Casey Affleck, who won for his performance in "Manchester by the Sea." Most of the Dolby Theater burst into applause for Affleck's win, but Larson held back and just stood there.
Viewers speculated that Larson didn't want to support Affleck because he has been accused of sexual harassment. Two women accused Affleck for the harassment on the set of his 2010 movie "I'm Still Here." Affleck settled out of court and said he and his accusers are prohibited from discussing the case as part of the settlement terms.
Larson told Vanity Fair on Wednesday that she didn't clap on purpose.
"I think that whatever it was that I did onstage kind of spoke for itself," she said. "I've said all that I need to say about that topic."
Larson has a record of using her celebrity to support women who have been sexually abused and to support other female-centric causes. She also picks roles that deal with feminist themes. In "Kong: Skull Island," her newest movie, she's one of the only female characters — a Vietnam war photographer and dissident. And "Room" opened a discussion about how woman can be abused by men, sight unseen.
The actress told Vanity Fair that she wants her movie to play a role in social change.
"There is a sense of joy and exhaustion that comes with every film, but the hope is that all the exhaustion pays off and you end up getting to share it with the world," Larson said. "You hope that it reverberates outward and that it changes people's opinions and hopefully for the better."
