Play it again: Allen still on defence
Another film from Woody, another actor justifies working with him
Woody Allen has never been charged with a sex crime.
In the court of public opinion, however, a large segment long ago began viewing the famed director a deviant for two reasons. First, in 1992, his former partner Mia Farrow accused him of molesting his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, then seven years old. Then in 1997, he married SoonYi Previn, Farrow’s adopted daughter. At the time, he was 62 and Previn was 27.
While Frank Maco, a Connecticut state’s attorney said in 1993 he had “probable cause” to prosecute Allen on charges of sexual molestation, he decided not to pursue the case, the New York Times reported, adding Mia Farrow agreed the move was in the child’s best interest.
Still, actors continue to feel the need to defend appearing in his films. The latest is Kate Winslet, who stars alongside Justin Timberlake in Allen’s upcoming 1950s-set drama, Wonder Wheel. A New York Times reporter asked Winslet if the past allegations against Allen had made her question the decision to accept the role.
“I didn’t know Woody and I don’t know anything about that family,” Winslet said. “As the actor in the film, you just have to step away and say, I don’t know anything, really, and whether any of it is true or false. Having thought it all through, you put it to one side and just work with the person.”
Working with Allen turned out to be an “extraordinary” experience, she said.
Entertainment news outlets dubbed Winslet’s response both clumsy and awkward. But her response was in line with other stars of Allen’s movies, who praise his skills as a director but remain detached when it comes to the allegations, seemingly in the name of impartiality.
The public pressure on actors intensified in January 2014, when Allen was given a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. A month later, Dylan Farrow published a controversial column in the New York Times. She wrote:
“... when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies.”
She said she developed a fear of being touched by men, developing an eating disorder and eventually began self-harming by cutting herself. She panicked every time she saw his face, which seemed to be everywhere. Allen denied the accusation. When promoting Allen’s 2016 Café Society, reporters questioned co-stars Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart, and both defended the director.
“It’s amazing what Woody has written for women,” Lively told the Los Angeles Times, adding the allegations didn’t give her pause. “It’s very dangerous to factor in things you don’t know anything about. I could (only) know my experience. And my experience with Woody is he’s empowering to women.”
Over the years, many others who had appeared in Allen’s films have defended either the director or their career decisions.
“I have nothing to say about that,” Diane Keaton, who appeared in several of Allen’s early movies, told the Guardian in 2014 when asked about the allegations. “Except: I believe my friend.”
Allen himself simply dismissed the accusations and at last year’s Cannes Film Festival said he no longer considers them.
“I’ve said all I can say about it,” he said, according to the New York Times. “I have so moved on that I never think about it.”