All About Famous Brothers Ben and Casey Affleck: From Boston Roots to Hollywood Rise

Ben Affleck and his brother, Casey Affleck, have many shared experiences

From growing up in Cambridge to costarring in movies together and starting families of their own, brothers Ben and Casey Affleck have always been there for each other.

Their father, Timothy Affleck, worked as a bartender and a janitor, while their mother, Christopher "Chris" Anne Boldt, was a school teacher. After their parents divorced in the 1980s, the siblings began to focus more on acting, with Ben landing a recurring role in The Voyage of the Mimi, a PBS educational miniseries.

Their careers took off at different paces, with Ben shooting to stardom after taking home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Huntingin 1997 — a movie that he starred in alongside Casey and their longtime family friend, Matt Damon.

Related: All About Ben Affleck’s Parents, Chris Anne Boldt and Timothy Affleck

Casey later gained recognition for his recurring role in the Ocean’s trilogy starting in 2001, before earning his first Oscar nomination for his role in 2007’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Now, more than two decades since the brothers embarked on their respective Hollywood journeys, they've collaborated on different projects, earned accolades and continued supporting each other off-screen.

Here’s everything to know about Ben and Casey Affleck and their sibling relationship.

They grew up in Massachusetts

Ben was born on Aug. 15, 1972, in Berkeley, Calif., and Casey followed on Aug. 12, 1975, in Falmouth, Mass.

Within a few years, their family settled in Cambridge, where Timothy worked a variety of jobs, and Chris Anne taught public school, Ben told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012.

In the midst of their home life and education, Ben and Casey met another future star — Damon, who lived two blocks down from them and quickly became like a third brother to the Affleck boys. The trio attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School together.

By the early 1980s, though, the dynamic in Ben and Casey’s house shifted after their parents' marriage ended. Afterward, when the boys spent quality time with their dad, it was often at the bars where he worked.

“My parents were divorced, so my brother and I, we’d often go see my dad at his work like many people do," Ben toldVanity Fairin 2021. "Parents work, so I spent a lot of time being close to my dad at the bars."

Ben and Casey have worked on several movies together

Ben and Casey grew up acting together, as their mom was friends with a local casting director and would bring them along to auditions.

“We would get to be an extra,” the younger Affleck told Variety in 2007. “You can find us in Field of Dreams, in The Good Mother, me in it more prominently. We’d get 20 bucks, get to eat donuts all day.”

Their first significant on-screen role together, in Good Will Hunting, was the start of a string of movies they’d collaborate on throughout their careers. In the 1990s, they also starred in the romantic comedy Chasing Amy, in which Ben was in the lead role, and the comedy 200 Cigarettes, featuring a star-studded cast.

Their biggest project came in 2007 for Ben’s directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, which he asked Casey to star in. The younger Affleck carefully mulled over the choice before committing to the project, he told Variety, wanting to make sure he could do justice to his brother’s first film.

“I said I would read the script and I would love to work with him, but I wanted to make sure that I was right for it. I didn’t want to screw it up,” he told the outlet. “So I wanted to be very careful about the decision. We talked a lot, we disagreed about everything, and then I said, ‘I’m in.' ”

Speaking to NPR, Casey later praised his brother’s directorial talents and opened up about how their closeness made it easy to get on the same wavelength.

“I knew that he was a very, very bright, super smart guy and would make a great director," he said. "We have similar tastes in movies and in acting styles and we have a shared language that makes it really easy to work together."

Casey continued, "We are brothers and grew up looking after each other, so the getting-to-know-you period that wastes the first few weeks of any movie ... we didn't have to go through that. We just sort of jumped right into it.”

For Ben’s part, directing his brother was an “exercise in self-discipline,” he told The Scotsman in 2008 (via E! News).

“You have to treat Casey as you would treat any actor in the movie, which meant trying to swallow the urge to strangle him, or to be really curt with him and just say: 'Because I say do it that way, that's why!' ” Ben said, before admitting that he was ultimately proud of working with Casey.

“But the thing that's really rewarding is that my brother is a really, really good actor,” he added.

They’ve both won Oscars

Ben was the first to nab an Academy Award, earning the Oscar for Best Screenplay alongside Damon for Good Will Hunting in 1998.

He brought their mom, Chris Anne, as his date and gave Casey a shout-out during his acceptance speech, calling him “brilliant.” Ben later earned the Oscar for Best Picture in 2013 for Argo, which he directed and starred in, and he took the chance to mention his brother as well.

After his 2007 Oscar nomination for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Casey swept the awards circuit in 2017, picking up the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance in Manchester by the Sea.

Ben was on hand to support him both times, cheering Casey on with a fist pump when he earned his Golden Globe and tearing up during his Oscars acceptance speech. Casey gave his older brother an emotional nod, saying, “Ben, I love you.”

They celebrate each other's strengths

Ben and Casey value their relationship far more than any sense of competition.

“Really, what is the point?” Casey told Variety in 2007. “You get to where you have had enough failures and you realize that you’ve got one brother. You are going to ruin the relationship by being competitive over who gets to be in a movie? Are you kidding me?”

Ben talked up his brother’s talents to Entertainment Tonight in 2017, calling him “one of the smartest guys I know.” He added that while they work in the same industry, Casey is exceedingly capable of holding his own.

“He doesn't need any advice," Ben said, calling him “savvy; he's smart; he's talented; he's thoughtful. He just knows what he's doing. He doesn't need me to help him."

They share a close friendship with Matt Damon

Ben and Damon are famously good friends but the latter also has a bond with Casey.

They’ve worked together on a handful of occasions, with Damon producing Manchester by the Sea and even passing off the lead role to Casey.

“I wasn’t interested in producing it for another actor, unless it was someone I grew up with and loved dearly,” Damon told Variety in 2016. “I knew he would be able to do it in a way where I wouldn’t regret giving it to him. He’s one of the best actors I’ve ever met.”

Ben gushed to ET about how important his relationships with Casey and Damon are.

"I can't tell you how valuable it is to have somebody who's been through things with you, ups and downs, who knows what your life experience is like, who can identify with that," Ben said. "It's an incredibly valuable friendship and it's very precious and so is my friendship with my brother. I don't know what I would do without those guys."

Most recently, Casey and Damon will star on the Apple TV+ heist comedy The Instigators, which Ben helped produce.

They’re proud fathers

Ben is a dad to three kids: Violet, Seraphina and Samuel, whom he shares with his ex-wife Jennifer Garner. The pair were married from 2005 to 2018, and since their divorce, Ben has launched his own production company, Artists Equity, to be able to stay around his children in Los Angeles.

"One of the reasons I did it was, I'm divorced. I share custody. I don't want to go to Austin and New Orleans and Georgia anymore and not see my kids," he told The Hollywood Reporter in March 2023. "It just doesn't work. These years are too important. If I miss them, I'll regret it for the rest of my life."

Ben has previously said that what matters most to him is what his children think of him. "I will be long dead and someone will ask my kids, 'What was your dad like?' and that is when I will know what my life was worth," he told Good Morning America in December 2021.

Related: Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck's Kids: Everything They've Said About Parenting

Casey is also a dad of two kids, sons Indiana and Atticus, whom he shares with his ex-wife Summer Phoenix. The pair dated for six years before tying the knot in 2006, and later went their separate ways in 2015.

After their divorce, Casey processed his thoughts on single parenthood by writing Light of My Life, which he also produced, directed and starred in.

“The last 14 years of my life have been primarily about being a parent. So when I started writing I found myself putting that experience down,” he told Deadline in February 2019. “I'm a single parent. I think about my kids and how to raise them all the time.”

They’re in relationships

After their respective divorces, the brothers have happily settled down with new partners.

In November 2021, Casey went public with actress Caylee Cowan, with him debuting their relationship on Instagram and calling her “my love.” Throughout their relationship, the pair have attended red carpet events hand-in-hand and talked about each other online.

Related: Who Is Casey Affleck's Girlfriend? All About Caylee Cowan

As for Ben, he rekindled his romance with Jennifer Lopez in 2021.

The couple originally dated from 2002 to 2004, attracting massive amounts of media attention with their high-profile engagement, which ended in them calling off their wedding. Nearly two decades later, the actor and singer reconnected and married in July 2022.

Most recently, Ben and Jennifer have been spending time apart. In May 2024, sources told PEOPLE that their marriage “is not in the best place at the moment” and they are living separately. In the months since, the actor and singer haven’t celebrated a few special occasions together, including their second wedding anniversary and Jennifer’s birthday.

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