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Woody Allen slams celebrities who've condemned him for alleged abuse

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Mar 29, 2021, 08:07 PM IST
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Photograph:(Twitter)

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Released on March 28, the footage was shot before the release of HBO's 'Allen v. Farrow' docu-series, so claims made in that film are not referenced.

Woody Allen became the talk of Hollywood corridors recently after the release of 'Allen vs Farrow'. Now, CBS has released a previously unseen interview with Woody Allen in which he again denies Dylan Farrow's claims that he molested her when she was a child.

The director also addressed Hollywood's public response to the allegations, deeming actors who have expressed regrets about working with him "well-meaning, but foolish."

Released on March 28, the footage was shot before the release of HBO's 'Allen v. Farrow' docu-series, so claims made in that film are not referenced.

The interview discusses Allen's ex, Mia Farrow's allegations. The allegations became public during Allen and Farrow's high-profile split in 1992, according to People. The longtime couple broke up after Mia discovered Allen was romantically involved with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, who Allen would eventually marry. 

Allen has long denied Dylan's sexual abuse claims, which led to an investigation but not to any charges, for the director.

"Nothing that I ever did with Dylan in my life could be misconstrued as that," Allen said. He also indicated that Mia coached Dylan to view interactions she had with him as inappropriate and sexual in nature.

"Why would a guy who's 57 years old … I never was accused of anything in my life," Allen said. "I'm suddenly going to drive up in the middle of a contentious custody fight at Mia's country home (with) a 7-year-old girl?" he asks. "It just – on the surface, I didn't think it required any investigation, even.

"It's so preposterous, and yet the smear has remained. And they still prefer to cling to if not the notion that I molested Dylan, the possibility that I molested her. Nothing that I ever did with Dylan in my life could be misconstrued as that," Allen says.

"I believe she thinks it. She was a good kid. I do not believe that she's making it up. I don't believe she's lying. I believe she believes that," he tells the CBS reporter.

In 'Allen v. Farrow,' Dylan described undergoing "grueling" evaluations as investigators sought to determine whether she was telling the truth in claiming Allen molested her. She said being interviewed so extensively and repeatedly over the course of three months made her worry she "was lying" because she had to defend herself so often.

Asked about actors who have distanced themselves or said publicly they would not work with him again because of Dylan's claims, Allen says, "I think they're foolish. They're well-meaning, but they're foolish. All they're doing is persecuting a perfectly innocent person, and they're enabling this lie."

He issued a similar response to the question last spring, when he told The Guardian, "The actors have no idea of the facts and they latch on to some self-serving, public, safe position. … That's how actors and actresses are, and [denouncing me] became the fashionable thing to do, like everybody suddenly eating kale."

After the 'Allen v. Farrow' docuseries premiered last month on HBO, Allen and Previn slammed the project as a "hatchet job riddled with falsehoods," and Allen again "categorically" denied Dylan's accusations. They also said, through their spokesperson, that the filmmakers gave them only "a matter of days to respond" to claims made in the film, so they declined.