KEY POINTS:
After more than a decade living in the shadow of his elder brother, Ben, Casey Affleck arrived last year with a bang. He even managed to overshadow Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a film which Pitt produced surely in the hope of receiving awards attention himself.
Instead, Casey earned a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his enigmatic portrayal of Jesse James' killer.
Somehow, 32-year-old Casey's talents had gone unrecognised in Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting and Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy, the films that propelled Ben, now 35, to stardom. The same thing happened when Casey co-starred with Ben's best friend, Matt Damon, in Van Sant's Gerry and in Oceans Eleven and its two sequels, he was buried beneath an all-star cast.
His patience has paid off though as it would be via his brother's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, that he would eventually receive the meaty lead role he deserves. Yet as with everything he does, the kudos he should have received has again been overshadowed, this time by the film's subject matter - child abduction and a perceived similarity to the Madeleine McCann case, which remains unresolved. The film's British release was postponed for some time and it will now go out in June.
"It's very different in our movie," says big brother Ben, who doesn't appear in the film (which he also co-wrote with his Boston buddy Aaron Stockard) because he wanted to concentrate on his work behind the camera.
"Here the disappearance of a little girl serves as a catalyst for a number of different plots and storylines for Casey's character to go down. It's not really just a detective story either. I liked that there's an assortment of interesting characters and I was particularly fascinated by the idea of a protagonist who isn't sure about what he's done."
While to discuss this would spoil the film, suffice it to say that Casey portrays his wet-around-the-ears private investigator with an uncertain mix of pride and regret.
Gone Baby Gone is an intriguing thriller based on one of a series of books by Mystic River writer Dennis Lehane. Complex like that story in its plotting, the series focuses on two local downbeat though steely Boston private detectives (the other played by Michelle Monaghan), who specialise in helping people who fall through society's cracks.
When the 4-year-old daughter of a drug-using lowlife (supporting actress Oscar nominee Amy Ryan) goes missing, the two are hired to assist the police (including Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman) in an investigation where little is quite what it seems. Their relationship is taken to the brink by the moral dilemma they come to face.
"It was never a question of him doing the right or wrong thing," says Casey. "I was hoping it would ask more questions than provide answers." It does.
While it was natural for the Afflecks to make a film together in their home town - where the city and its surrounding downbeat neighbourhoods almost became another character - Ben says he cast Casey because he was the best actor for the part.
"The character was written a little bit older and probably the best choice I made as a director was to imagine him younger. I think it was smarter storywise because he has more to lose. As soon as I imagined him being 30-years-old there was only one actor who could play him."
Says Casey: "Having Ben as my brother naturally factored into our relationship on the film. As actors we already have a common language that we didn't have to develop in the rehearsal process. We were very comfortable disagreeing with each other and then arriving at the same page - and going home afterwards to play with our kids."
Casey is more of a brooding kind of actor than his brother and has more of the sensibility of his in-laws, the Phoenixes. He lives happily away from the celebrity circuit with his wife, Summer, and their two sons, aged 3 and 3 months.
The couple met through Summer's brother, Joaquin, who has been Casey's best friend since they appeared together in To Die For, directed by Van Sant.
Van Sant, who developed a close friendship with River Phoenix after they made My Own Private Idaho, has long enjoyed a strong relationship with the Phoenixes and Afflecks, and he certainly helped pave the way for their current successes, particularly Ben and Matt with their Oscar-winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting, and to a lesser extent Casey in that film and Gerry.
But the younger Affleck has no desire to be a matinee idol - even if he is developing into a scene-stealer. With his baby face, squeaky voice and quiet approach, he can suddenly explode and have you on the edge of your seat as he takes on formidable adversaries in both Jesse James and Gone Baby Gone. Though it wasn't as if he recognised that aspect of either project initially.
"I'm just drawn to things magnetically, it just sort of happens," he says.
big role"Really, though, these parts are very different from each other and they show I can do different things. It took the faith of a lot of people to pull them off."
Indeed, Pitt and director Andrew Dominik championed his casting in Jesse James. "A lot of us have known Casey for many years and have been big fans," said Pitt. "So we were really happy to see him win this opportunity, because it was a coveted role and because it was such a big role. And he played it so well."
Never one to blow his own trumpet, Casey is not keen to take the credit. "Any attention for me is actually a really nice acknowledgement for the director, Andrew Dominik. It says as much about the director as it does about the actor. That said, I feel the movie didn't get the acknowledgment it deserved."
Some consider him one of Hollywood's rising stars. "I'm not even sure what being a star means. I guess that it's getting more popular and more people know you, and that's great because it creates opportunities for me."
But Casey, who now lives in Los Angeles, is content to spend time with his family out of the spotlight.
"I love being around the house and being with the kids every day," he says. "Being an actor means that, if you're successful anyway, you can kind of work for three or four months out of the year and then you're home a lot of the time. And that suits me fine."
LOWDOWN
Who: Casey Affleck
What: Gone Baby Gone, opens in cinemas today
Key roles: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007); Gerry (2002); Ocean's Eleven (2001); 200 Cigarettes (1999); Good Will Hunting (1997); Chasing Amy (1997)
