In an interview with The Guardian – his first since being accused of harassment during his best actor campaign for Manchester By the Sea in 2016 – Casey Affleck has admitted to behaving in an “unprofessional” manner on the set of I’m Still Here.

The atmosphere on the 2010 film’s set prompted civil lawsuits from two women who worked on the production and it was these lawsuits that came back into the spotlight during Affleck’s Oscar trail. The lawsuits concerned a breach of contract, and an allegation of sexual harassment. The civil suits were settled by both parties and dismissed in 2010.

In the Guardian interview, Casey Affleck – producer and director of I’m Still Here – relates his move from “a place of being defensive to one of a more mature point of view”.

“I was a boss… and it was an unprofessional environment,” he says. “In this business women have been underrepresented and underpaid and objectified and diminished and humiliated and belittled in a bazillion ways and just generally had a mountain of grief thrown at them forever. And no one was really making too much of a fuss about it, myself included, until a few women with the kind of courage and wisdom to stand up and say, ’You know what? Enough is enough’.”

While some may think that the admission has come too late – Affleck has not spoken publicly since the beginnings of the #MeToo movement – it is important to see those who have abused positions of power tell the truth about their actions, rather than simply apologise and/or undermine those that stand against them.

Correction: This article was updated August 14 to retract the claim that a lawsuit involving Affleck included an allegation of sexual assault. The article was edited to say instead that a lawsuit included an allegation of sexual harassment. We apologise for the error.