On Sunday night, Woody Allen gave an interview to an Argentinian news show called Periodismo Para Todos. As you may know, Woody doesn’t actually give that many interviews – I would say he probably averages about one interview a year, possibly two if he really wants to “promote” one of his films or projects. Part his media-shyness is just… what he’s been doing for many years. He doesn’t like giving interviews. But part of his more recent media-shyness is because any time he speaks to anyone on the record, they ask him about Dylan Farrow and whether he’s a child molester. Well, Woody was in a chatty mood. He shared his thoughts on Dylan’s accusations, and his thoughts on #MeToo.
On the re-emergence of Dylan Farrow’s accusation in the #MeToo era: “I mean this is just so crazy. This is something that has been thoroughly looked at 25 years ago by all the authorities and everybody came to the conclusion that it was untrue. And that was the end and I’ve gone on with my life. For it to come back now, it’s a terrible thing to accuse a person of. I’m a man with a family and my own children. So of course it’s upsetting.”
On the #MeToo movement: “I think in any situation where anyone is accused of someone unjustly, this is a sad thing. I think everybody would agree with that … Everyone wants justice to be done. If there is something like the Me Too movement now, you root for them, you want them to bring to justice these terrible harassers, these people who do all these terrible things. And I think that’s a good thing. What bothers me is that I get linked with them. People who have been accused by 20 women, 50 women, 100 women of abuse and abuse and abuse— and I, who was only accused by one woman in a child custody case which was looked at and proven to be untrue, I get lumped in with these people.
He considers himself an advocate for #MeToo: “As I say, I’m a big advocate of the Me Too movement. I feel when they find people who harass innocent women and men, it’s a good thing that they’re exposing them. But you know I, I should be the poster boy for the Me Too movement. Because I have worked in movies for 50 years. I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses and not a single one—big ones, famous ones, ones starting out—have ever ever suggested any kind of impropriety at all. I’ve always had a wonderful record with them.
Dylan Farrow has detailed the circumstances around her case several times now – Woody Allen was never been proven innocent, and no one involved in the investigation ever came out and said that Dylan was lying. Her story has never been disproven. The prosecutor declined to prosecute Woody because he thought Dylan was much too fragile to testify, even though there was likely enough evidence to build a case. The authorities have not been looking at Dylan’s case for 25 years – it was investigated the one time and dropped because of Dylan’s age.
Now, do I think that Dylan’s story “belongs” within the #MeToo movement? She’s tried to make it so, and in doing so, Dylan has approaches this is by attacking the people (mostly the women) who have worked with Woody over the years, even before she even told her story publicly in 2014. I think Dylan’s story IS a #MeToo story, but personally, I’ve been uncomfortable with how she wields her story to malign women in the industry, some of whom have been victimized and abused by other men. Now, all that being said… Woody’s argument is bulls–t. It’s amounts to the same dumb thing that months-old New York Times op-ed claimed, which is that Woody has only been accused of molesting ONE person, and everybody knows you get one “freebie.” It’s awful.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
