Actor Ben Affleck proudly posed alongside his lookalike 22-year-old nephew Indiana and brother Casey on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday.
The 54-year-old Oscar winner and Indiana wore big smiles as they attended the festival screening of Company, a new film written and directed by 51-year-old Casey Affleck. Indiana stars in the movie alongside his 18-year-old brother Atticus Affleck, who was not present at the premiere.
Ben Affleck looked dapper in a classic black suit, wrapping his arm around his nephew as they posed for photographs. Indiana also looked dapper, wearing a lace-lined double-breasted velvet tuxedo.
Casey Affleck appeared dapper at the event to celebrate the film. The brothers and Indiana were joined on the red carpet by cast members Emily Alyn Lind, Scoot McNairy, Adelaide Clemens, Nick Nolte, and Caylee Cowan.
Speaking at a press conference earlier that day, Casey Affleck revealed that working with his two sons was one of the best professional experiences of his life.
Casey said: "I think they grew up around it and had some interest in it and a sort of innate understanding of what it was."
He added: "Like I did, my dad worked in the theater 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."
Tribute to Lost Parents
At the same press conference, Casey Affleck confirmed that he had lost both of his parents during the year.
Casey, who co-wrote, directed, and stars in the picture, explained while promoting the movie at the festival: "It’s dedicated to my parents because I lost both my mom and my dad this year, and they were very important to me."
He continued: "I really wanted to show this movie to them, and I didn’t get to. I think they would have liked it."
In July, it was announced that their mother, Chris Anne Affleck, had died on June 2 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. It is not known when their father, Timothy Affleck, died. Representatives for Casey and Ben Affleck have been contacted for comment and have yet to respond.
Company follows a woman who arrives uninvited to a holiday party in 1975. She tells the story of Tom, an aging hermit who rescues a stranded actress during a Colorado blizzard in 1953.
To pass the time in the film, the actress shares an older story of a farming couple who take someone in as a series of murders spread across their area.
Family Legacy and Survival
Timothy and his ex-wife Chris Anne are survived by their two sons, Ben, 54, and Casey, 51, as well as five grandchildren: Indiana, 22, Violet, 20, Atticus, 18, Fin, 17, and Sam, 14.
The grandchildren were described as the animating force of her last two decades in an obituary published on Legacy for Chris Anne.
According to her obituary, doctors told Chris Anne last December that she had six months to live. Her final wish was to see her grandson's high school graduation.
She attended the graduation ceremony on May 31 and died in her sleep just two days later.
Father's Reflection on Hollywood
Timothy Affleck stayed out of the limelight for most of his life, other than an appearance in Casey Affleck's mockumentary starring Joaquin Phoenix titled I'm Still Here.
However, in February 2018, Timothy defended his sons from numerous ugly allegations, telling Grazia: "It has taken a toll on both of my sons. Hollywood is a disgusting place. I think that’s been a major factor in Ben’s drinking. You’re kind of forced to develop a persona that is hard to shed and go home to your family. It affects your whole life. I think that’s one of the dangers of the film industry."
As Ben Affleck has also had well-documented struggles with alcohol throughout his career, Timothy had taken the blame for his son's relationship with drinking.
Timothy said at the time: "I was a chronic, severe alcoholic for several years. I had to recover and, happily, I did. Ben has always been serious about getting sober. There is no question about that. He wants a balanced life and he is working at it."
Mother's Life and Advocacy
Meanwhile, Timothy's ex-wife Chris Anne was born in December 1942 in New York City. She graduated from Harvard University, earned her master's degree there, and worked as a public school teacher for 35 years prior to her retirement in 2008.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in 2012 about his mother, Ben Affleck said: "My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master’s there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school."
Chris Anne developed a keen sense of social consciousness early in life. While attending the Nightingale-Bamford school, "she made the most of an elite education while remaining skeptical of the tightly cloistered world it represented," according to her obituary.
In one instance, a teacher yelled at her for condemning Jim Crow laws since she had not spoken to the "other side," according to her obituary.
She subsequently called a Woolworth's store to inquire if they had turned down business from Black people. It marked her essence of being "willing to acknowledge that she might be wrong and never letting that uncertainty be an excuse for inaction," her obituary stated.
She was a staunch advocate for civil rights and traveled to the South in the 1960s during a period of social change, according to her obituary.
Chris Anne "taught literacy classes in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, marched against the Vietnam War, and reveled in 1960s counterculture," her obituary stated.
She carried these values into the classroom, according to the obituary, as "every student, whether just arrived from Haiti or Cambridge upper crust, was a cherished citizen of her classroom republic, equal to each other and to herself."
Chris Anne and ex Timothy Affleck welcomed Ben in 1972 and Casey in 1975. In the mid-1970s, they moved to Massachusetts as Chris Anne taught there. They got divorced when Ben was 12 years old, and Timothy relocated to California after the breakup.
