Actress Caylee Cowan is taking a stand for the animal kingdom.
The 27-year-old is now the face of PETA’s latest campaign advocating for vegan leather alternatives (even starring in a new billboard for the cause) – and in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, opened up about bonding over her passion for the welfare of animals with her boyfriend, Casey Affleck.
A vegan since she was a teenager, Caylee feels passionately about the welfare of animals – and so does her boyfriend.
‘Casey’s vegan. He’s been vegan since I’ve known him,’ she told Daily Mail.
Calling him ‘such an animal lover’, Caylee says her boyfriend has gone through great lengths to care for four-legged friends in need – even rescuing a three-legged dog he found on the side of a train track.
‘He used to have a dog that had three legs that he rescued on the side of a train track,’ she explained.
Actress Caylee Cowan is the face of PETA’s latest campaign advocating for vegan leather alternatives
‘The dog would yap, the dog would like bark and bite and he just kind of took care of it,’ she said.
While Caylee’s latest campaign sees her advocating for faux leather alternatives, two celebrities in her orbit have previously come under fire for incorporating animal fur into their wardrobe – Jennifer Lopez and her ex Ben Affleck, whose brother is Caylee’s boyfriend.
Jennifer and her ex Ben have both faced the wrath of PETA in the past, after the actor purchased his then-girlfriend a chinchilla coat in 2002, according to Vogue .
‘You have opened my eyes to a particularly cruel and barbaric treatment of animals,’ Ben said in response to PETA’s reprimand at the time. ‘I can assure you that I do not endorse such treatment and will not do anything in the future that supports it.’
Asked about the chinchilla controversy, Caylee said she was unaware of it.
‘I actually have met JLo, and she is so, so sweet,’ Caylee told Daily Mail, adding the pop star, 56, ‘is very thoughtful and kind and generous.’
The Selena actress could even make an impact in the fashion industry if she were to use her star power to make a stand against the fur industry.
‘If Jen made a change and made a stance and said… “I’m only gonna wear a faux fur. I’m not gonna wear something that’s made out of animal skin or animal’s fur,” then that would really trickle down to everybody,’ Caylee said, who noted neither JLo and Ben, 53, are vegans.
Bennifer 2.0 officially crumbled earlier this year, after reigniting their romance over a decade after their first go-around.
Caylee has been dating Casey Affleck, the brother of Ben Affleck, since 2021; pictured July in St. Tropez
PETA called out Jennifer Lopez, who was previously married to Casey’s brother Ben Affleck, over the fur she wore in Hustlers
Caylee has previously said she and Casey support one another by completing simple domestic tasks such as household chores – which she credits for the success of their relationship.
The glamorous Bennifer 2.0, meanwhile, officially crumbled just a few years after saying ‘I do.’
‘I love them both, but, like, you know, I’ve been in a relationship with Casey while they got back together, married, and divorced…’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘All within the span of my relationship with Casey. So, you know, I think that having a grounded relationship is so important. Like, that’s what it’s about.’
Casey met Caylee in January 2021 before they went Instagram official in November of that year. Bennifer, meanwhile, became linked again in April 2021.
Jennifer has raised the ire of PETA multiple times, from her fur costumes in Hustlers to a feathered Versace cape at the Super Bowl that the designer later said consisted of ‘ethically sourced’ feathers.
The organization slammed JLo after she wore a Versace cape made of feathers during her Super Bowl performance, however the designer later clarified the feathers were ‘ethically sourced’
Caylee’s relationship with Casey has outlasted Bennifer 2.0; pictured 2003
She has, however, worn faux fur outfits, and in 2022 a faux fur coat she wore to the iHeart Radio Awards was praised by the organization.
In a statement hailing the fashion choice, PETA referenced her relationship with Ben and wished the couple a ‘happy fur-free future.’
‘Older, wiser … and kinder? In 2002, when Ben bought Jennifer a chinchilla coat, PETA wrote to him, and he said, “Never again.” Twenty years later, the couple has reunited, and no animals have been killed for JLo’s wardrobe because she’s gone faux, for the animals’ sake. We wish the couple a happy fur-free future together,’ they said.
Caylee and Casey bond over their shared passion for the welfare of animals; pictured October 2024
Caylee revealed to Daily Mail that her boyfriend once had a three-legged dog he rescued from the side of a train track; pictured 2023
As for Caylee, she has found a match with someone who shares the same passion for her care with animals.
Casey also spent an entire day tending to a somewhat ferocious pooch he found alongside the road.
‘Sorry to gush… there was this dog that he found on the side of the road that was like tied up. And it was barking,’ she said. ‘And it had been left in the sun all day, and I came and Ubered to him.’
‘He was there the whole day trying to get an animal service, like, company to come and pick up the dog and try to get him food and was spending his whole day just trying to take care of this dog that was almost gonna bite him.
‘But he’s like that all the time. He just has a really big heart,’ she said.
Their passion for animal rights also prompted them to both leave a hotel they had been set up in after discovering it had been decorated with taxidermy.
She now appears in PETA’s new campaign promoting vegan leather alternatives
In a video, she describes how faux leather can be created out of fruit such as apple and pineapple
She compared the ability to transform fruit into leather to a ‘magic trick’
‘I was in Spokane, Washington on a film set. The hotel that we had, me and Casey, we had to move because the hotel had stuffed animal heads, like, all over the place and like furs, real furs on the floor,’ she said.
‘And there’s something energetically that I just I pick up from like a fur that’s real, it kinda creeps me out. It actually kinda grosses me out. But I don’t know if that’s just because like, I’m not sure exactly why that I have that feeling, but it feels like there’s an energy to something that I can pick up on.’
Casey says balancing their busy lifestyles with their relationship is ‘pretty easy.’
‘We have a mutual understanding because we’re like both actors,’ she said.
Caylee – whose credits include Frank and Penelope and The Instigators, a 2024 film starring her boyfriend and Matt Damon – will soon be appearing in another film, Hollywood Grit.
She appears in a new video and billboard promoting faux leather alternatives
Even cork can be used as a faux fur alternative
A vegan since she was a teenager, the cause is clearly something close to her heart
And she also is putting on a traffic-stopping display in Los Angeles, where she appears on a new billboard promoting PETA’s vegan leather campaign.
The billboard, located by West Hollywood on Beverly Boulevard in between Harper and North Sweetzer avenues, sees Caylee clad in an opulent red floral gown as she sits beneath a tree adorned with red purses.
She holds a juicy red apple in hand with a cow by her side.
In a whimsical video done for the campaign, Caylee describes how fruit and plants can be transformed into faux leather.
The concept for the video, Caylee believes, was inspired by the ‘magic’ of turning food into fashion.
‘It feels like magical, like a magic trick to make a bag from an apple, but it’s not that complicated,’ she told Daily Mail.
‘If it can be popularized in fashion, then it would make a huge difference on not only the environment, but for cows and farming,’ she said.
‘It is kind of magical, isn’t it?’
