Woody Allen responds to Ronan Farrow essay fallout
Media waited a full day to even ask director about piece by his estranged son
CANNES, FRANCE— On Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival, journalists at a news conference for Café Society refrained from asking writer-director Woody Allen about the elephant in the room: The publication earlier that day of an essay by Allen’s estranged son Ronan Farrow about the media’s approach to allegations of abuse by daughter Dylan Farrow.
That changed Thursday, as a series of lunch roundtable interviews with the director saw the question posed. Maybe it was the passage of a day, or the group in question, or maybe just the fact that journalists were given much freer rein than at a Cannes news conference, where a moderator calls on specific people and leaves many with their hands raised.
Whatever it was, the opportunity finally came up to raise the elephant. And Allen addressed it. Sort of.
When asked by the L.A. Times how it felt to hear about public accusations such as the Farrow essay, and the fact that moviegoers now may see (or not see) his movies with that in mind, he waved the issue aside.
“I never think about it,” Allen said. “I made my statement in the New York Times a long time ago,” referring to a much-read op-ed several years ago. “They gave me a lot of space.” “I think it’s all silly,” he added. “The whole thing — it doesn’t bother me. I don’t think about it. I work.”
That followed a question from the Washington Post, in which a Café Society joke about an in-family romantic relationship of sorts evoked thoughts in many audience members of Allen’s relationship with Soon-Yi Previn. How did the director feel that the audience was laughing with that meta understanding in mind?
“I just thought it was a funny line,” he said of the joke, then elaborated. “I’m OK with what gives the audience pleasure.” Whatever moves them, he said, was a “godsend to me.”
For what it’s worth, Café Society star Kristen Stewart had an opinion about the lack of any questions at the news conference the day before: “I was shocked,” she said simply, when asked about it by the Times.
She said the actors had not really discussed it before the news conference. But Stewart, who is no stranger to reporters using junkets to ask about entertainers’ personal lives, was aware of the piece when she came with Allen and her castmates to the podium and was expecting at least a question.