Following his prestigious Oscar win for Best Actor at the weekend, Casey Affleck has broken his silence over the controversy surrounding sexual harassment allegations against him seven years ago.

Since he collected the Academy Award for his role in Manchester By the Sea on Sunday night, not everybody has been celebrating, with many recalling that he had been accused of “uninvited and unwelcome sexual advances in the workplace” by two women on the set of his mockumentary movie I’m Still Here back in 2010.

Casey AffleckCasey Affleck with his Oscar for 'Manchester By the Sea'

Affleck settled the cases out of court that resulted in the lawsuits being dropped, but that didn’t stop a backlash being ignited this awards season when the 41 year old started to get nominated for the big prizes.

“I believe that any kind of mistreatment of anyone for any reason is unacceptable and abhorrent, and everyone deserves to be treated with respect in the workplace and anywhere else,” he told The Boston Globe in a post-Oscars interview on Wednesday (March 1st).

More: Everything we know so far about Casey Affleck’s new project ‘Light of My Life’

The controversy was not only the allegations against Affleck themselves, but the way that Nate Parker, the writer, star and director of his acclaimed Birth of a Nation movie, suffered the total destruction of his early Oscar hopes over similar allegations, whereas Affleck’s campaign did not get affected the same way.

Indeed, people watching the Oscars telecast took to social media to point out that Brie Larson, who won last year for her role in Room as the imprisoned victim of sexual abuse, was not clapping as she presented Affleck with his award.

Affleck also pointed out that none of the online commenters knew what really happened and that, in any case, all parties were prohibited from talking about the case as part of the settlement.

“There’s really nothing I can do about it, other than live my life the way I know I live it and to speak to what my own values are and how I try to live by them all the time.”

More: Constance Wu calls out the Academy for nominating Casey Affleck for Best Actor Oscar