After nearly a year of silence, Casey Affleck has opened up about the #MeToo movement, and the sexual harassment allegations that led him to step away from presenting the award for best actress at this years Oscars ceremony. Speaking with the Associated Press, Affleck said that he believes stepping aside and allowing two women—Jodie Foster and Jennifer Lawrence—to present was the right thing to do. The conversation turned particularly candid when Affleck addressed the allegations from 2010, detailed in two lawsuits, that raised concerns about him in the first place.

In 2010, two women sued Affleck after working on Im Still Here, a film he directed. Producer Amanda White alleged that Affleck encouraged another crew member to flash his penis at her, while cinematographer Magdalena Górka alleged he got in bed with her one night while she was sleeping. As described in her lawsuit, she woke up to discover Affleck “had his arm around her, was caressing her back, his face was within inches of hers and his breath reeked of alcohol.”

“First of all, that I was ever involved in a conflict that resulted in a lawsuit is something that I really regret,” Affleck told the A.P. “I wish I had found a way to resolve things in a different way.” The allegations, Affleck said, were the first of their kind; he was embarrassed and did not entirely disagree with how he was being characterized, but unsure how to respond. In the end, the suits were both settled out of court for an undisclosed sum; as Affleck described the resolution, all parties involved “agreed to just try to put it behind us and move on with our lives, which I think we deserve to do, and I want to respect them as theyve respected me and my privacy.”

The #MeToo movement, Affleck continued, has been enlightening: “Over the past couple of years, Ive been listening a lot to this conversation, this public conversation, and learned a lot. I kind of moved from a place of being defensive to one of a more mature point of view, trying to find my own culpability. And once I did that I discovered there was a lot to learn. I was a boss. I was one of the producers on the set . . . The cast was the crew and the crew was kind of the cast and it was an unprofessional environment and, you know, the buck had to stop with me being one of the producers and I have to accept responsibility for that and that was a mistake.”

“I contributed to that unprofessional environment,” Affleck added, “and I tolerated that kind of behavior from other people and I wish that I hadnt. And I regret a lot of that. I really did not know what I was responsible for as the boss. I dont even know if I thought of myself as the boss. But I behaved in a way and allowed others to behave in a way that was really unprofessional. And Im sorry.”

As for how hes worked to create a safer environment now with his production company, Sea Change Media, Affleck noted that Whitaker Lader, the companys head of production and development, has been instrumental in addressing such issues. He pointed to the women who started Times Up and #MeToo as the ones who should be leading the conversation on Hollywoods discrimination against and mistreatment of women, adding, “I know just enough to know that in general I need to keep my mouth shut and listen and try to figure out whats going on and be a supporter and a follower in the little, teeny tiny ways that I can. And we do that at our production company and I try to do it at home, and if Im ever called upon by anyone to help in any way and contribute, Id be more than happy to.”

Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.

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