Casey Affleck stepped out of the shadow of brother Ben in 2007 with critically acclaimed movies The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which earnt him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, and Gone Baby Gone.
And he is now returning to the big screen with his latest movie The Killer Inside Me, which is directed by Michael Winterbottom and is based on the novel by Jim Thompson.
Affleck made his big screen debut in 1995 when he appeared in To Die For with Joaquin Phoenix and Nicole Kidman.
He then worked with brother Ben on Chasing Amy and Good Will Hunting, the film that launched the careers of ben and Matt Damon when they won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Casey went on to star in Drowning Mona and Soul Survivors, both which did badly at the box office, as his brother's star was rising Casey found his career slowing down.
His fortunes began to turn however in 2001 when he was cast in Steven Soderbergh's remake of ocean's Eleven alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts.
The film did well both critically and commercially grossing over $450 million at the global box office, becoming the sixth highest grossing movie of the year.
The success spawned two sequels Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen last summer.
He teamed up with Matt Damon to write and star in Gerry before returning fully to acting.
But it was 2007 that really was Casey's breakthrough year. Teamed once again with Brad Pitt he starred as Robert Ford in western Jesse James.
Affleck took on the role of Robert Ford in a movie that follows the last months of Jesse James's life, from meeting Robert Ford, a 19-year-old who idolizes Jesse, to the day Ford shoots him.
Jesse's a wanted man, living under a pseudonym, carrying out a train robbery, disappearing to Kentucky, and reappearing to plan a bank holdup with Robert and Robert's brother as his team.
The rest of the gang is dead, arrested, or gone from Missouri. Whenever Jesse's around, there's tension: he's murderous, quixotic, depressed, and cautious.
Ford wants to be somebody and wants the reward. On April 3, 1882, things come to a head: Jesse is 34, Robert 20. Ford becomes famous, reenacting the shooting on stage, facing down the label "coward," shot dead in 1892.
The film secured Casey Affleck a best supporting actor Oscar and Golden Globe nomination. Despite being on a limited release it was a big hit critically.
In June Gone Baby Gone will finally be released in the UK, after being postponed due to the disappearance of Madeline McCaan.
Casey in the lead role as a private detective, Gone Baby Gone centres on the disappearance of a young girl in the working class neighbourhood of Dorchester in South Boston.
With plenty of twists and turns, the movie works as a solid crime thriller, but it's as a study of a place--and one's ability to either accept and embrace or ultimately break free from it--that the film flowers.
Beneath the movie's street-tough justice and cop shop politics sits a very complicated view of the world, which Affleck delves into unflinchingly, thanks in large part to his ability to extract some excellent performances from his cast
Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane the film was Ben Affleck's directorial debut, he also penned the script. In America it was a critical hit.
Since the success of Gone Baby Gone, which was only released in the UK in 2008 because of the similarities to the Maddie McCann case, Affleck has taken a break from the big screen.
But this week he is back in the already controversial The Killer Inside Men, which also stars Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba.
Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) has a bunch of problems. Woman problems. Law enforcement problems. An ever-growing pile of murder victims in his west Texas jurisdiction. And the fact that he's a sadist, a psychopath, a killer.
Suspicion begins to fall on Lou, and it's only a matter of time before he runs out of alibis.
As a lifelong resident, Ford has difficulty juggling his long-term girlfriend Amy (Kate Hudson), the prostitute named Joyce (Jessica Alba) that he mistakenly falls for, and the sociopathic tendencies inside him. In Thompson's savage, bleak, blacker than noir universe nothing is ever what it seems.
The movie has already drawn criticism for it's level of violence but it's yet another great performance from Affleck as he continues to prove that he is a talent that we should all keep an eye on.
And he has plenty of projects in the pipeline with movies The Kind One, Aardvark Art's Ark and Ness.
The Killer Inside me is released 4th June.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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