Hall: I should have said ‘no’ to Woody Allen
Actress donates salary from film to campaign group after reading daughter’s abuse claims
Rebecca Hall, the British actress, has said she regrets appearing in Woody Allen’s latest film, A Rainy Day in New York, after she read claims from the director’s adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, 35, that he abused her as a child – allegations Allen denies.
REBECCA HALL has revealed that she regrets appearing in Woody Allen’s latest film after reading his adopted daughter’s claims that he molested her.
The 35-year-old London-born actress said she would be donating her fee for her part in Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York to the Time’s Up coalition, a campaign group formed in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Dylan Farrow, 35, has repeatedly accused Allen of abusing her when she was seven years old in 1992. The film director has denied the allegations. In 2014, Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter publicly criticising film stars who had collaborated with her stepfather on recent movie projects.
Now Hall, whose success was in part thanks to her appearance in the director’s 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, has said she will not work with him again.
Hall, daughter of the late Sir Peter Hall, the theatre director, and Maria Ewing, the opera singer, posted a statement on a social networking site saying that she was on set with Allen the day after claims that Weinstein, the movie mogul, had sexually assaulted female actresses.
She wrote: “The day after the Weinstein accusations broke in full force, I was shooting a day of work on Woody Allen’s latest movie in New York. I couldn’t have imagined somewhere stranger to be that day.”
Explaining how “easy” it had been to accept his offer to appear in the film, she said: “‘I have, however subsequently realised there is nothing easy about any of this. In the weeks following, I have thought very deeply about this decision, and and saddened.”
She said that she had “read and reread” Ms Farrow’s open letters and tweets about her father’s alleged abuse and her subsequent disappointment that Hollywood had failed to shun him the way other directors accused of abusing a position of power had been. “I see, not only how complicated this matter is, but that my actions have made another woman feel silenced and dismissed. That is not something that sits easily with me in the current or indeed any moment, and I am profoundly sorry.”
Referring to her decision to give her pay for the film to Time’s Up as a “small gesture”, she added that she looked for- remain conflicted ward to being part of a “positive movement towards change not just in Hollywood but hopefully everywhere”.
Farrow wrote on Twitter yesterday to Hall saying: “Thank you so much.”
When Hall, a former head girl at the exclusive Sussex girls’ school Roedean, appeared in a Woody Allen film in 2008, she praised the director, claiming his romantic comedy Manhattan was her favourite movie. The following year, Sir Peter Hall revealed how she “desperately, desperately” wanted to be in a Allen film because it was “one of her life ambitions”.
Meanwhile, Liam Neeson warned that the Hollywood sexual harassment scandal was becoming a “bit of a witch hunt”. The 65-year-old actor told RTE’s The Late Late Show that some famous people were being “suddenly accused of touching some girl’s knee” before being dropped from a programme. AN OPERA singer who had just three hours to rehearse before performing to thousands of people at the Royal Opera House has revealed how she was petrified about performing in Britain.
Sabina Puértolas, a Spanish soprano, was flown into Britain on the very day she was to step in to perform in Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto after the English soprano Lucy Crowe fell ill l with a throat infection.
Ms Puértolas only learnt of her role as a last-minute replacement the day before the curtain was due to go up and so she was petrified that she would not impress London’s opera loving crowds.
She told The T Sunday Telegraph: “I got the call from my manager in the afternoon asking me how I was feeling – if I had a cold or the flu? Then, I got a second call to say that I had to be on a flight the next day to London. I knew I had to help the Royal Opera House. I had to remember to pack the score. What happened the next day will remain in my heart as the most emotional moment in my career.” Royal Opera House bosses had to make more than a dozen calls before finding a sufficiently accomplished singer suitable to perform as Gilda, Rigoletto’s daughter. Some sopranos were found to be already booked while others lacked a visa to work in the UK.
Ms Puértolas’s manager, Alex Fernandez, admits she was a little nervous having had so little time to rehearse. “She was so scared that the audience wouldn’t like her; people come to see a certain soprano so it was a lot of pressure,” he said.
However, she proved to be a hit and received “thunderous” applause, according to the Wall Street Journal. “It was absolutely fantastic,” Ms Puértolas said. “I had three magical and unforgettable hours.”
She resisted the temptation to dwell on her inevitable fears after having so little time to prepare because she wanted to enjoy singing on one of the world’s most “historic stages”.
“The applause was the moment when I realised where I was and what I had done. It was such an ovation from the audience I was not expecting it, so I felt overwhelmed and started crying.”
Oliver Mears, director of opera at The Royal Opera, said: “We’re thrilled, but not surprised, at how well her jump-in worked out for both her and for us.”