Casey Affleck performed for Rosa Parks as a kid in Massachusetts
Despite an onstage gaffe, the civil rights activist seemed to enjoy his performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM9TwdQDWWE
Casey Affleck stopped by The Tonight Show Thursday to chat with Jimmy Fallon about Manchester by the Sea and his upcoming hosting gig on Saturday Night Live this weekend.
“I started my career in live theater, actually,” Affleck said when asked about performing on SNL. “I was in kindergarten.”
The Cambridge native explained that, when he was a kid, civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks came to visit his Massachusetts elementary school, and the students put on a show for her.
“I was a lion,” Affleck said. “What I had to do was run up to the front of the stage and roar, and get off the stage. It was gonna be good.”
As Affleck walked onto the stage, however, disaster struck: His mane fell off.
“It was my very first artistic crisis as a performer,” Affleck joked. “Do I go back and pick up the mane? Do I just go ahead and roar? Will they know what I am if I don’t have a mane?”
Affleck ended up running back and grabbing the mane, and subsequently earning praise from Parks.
“Afterward, Rosa Parks patted me on the head and smiled at me, which was pretty amazing,” Affleck said. “Since then, my whole career has been trying to recapture that feeling of approval. That’s what I’m looking for. So it’s not just about being on Saturday Night Live; it’s about working through some early childhood trauma.”
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