Woody Allen told an Argentinean news programme that he should be the face of the Me Too movement against sexual assault and harassment. The American director’s statement comes in the midst of the prosecution of producer Harvey Weinsten for rape and assault and follows renewed allegations that Allen molested his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, in 1992.
Allen told Periodismo Para Todos (Journalism for All) on Sunday night that he was a “big advocate of the Me Too movement”. Allen stated, “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.”
He added, “I think in any situation where anyone is accused of something 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.”
Allen also told the news programme that he was troubled by comparisons with a serial offender like Weinstein. “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 said.
The accusation of abuse was first made by Allen’s former partner, Mia Farrow, and recently renewed by Dylan Farrow and Ronan Farrow, Allen’s biological child with Mia Farrow. A subsequent investigation cleared Allen. He is married to Soon-Yi Previn, Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter from her second marriage to the composer Andre Previn.
Commenting on the charge of abuse, Allen said, “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.” Allen has two adopted daughters with Previn.
The 82-year-old director recently wrapped up A Rainy Day in New York, starring Timothee Chalamet, Jude Law, Rebecca Hall, Selena Gomez, Elle Fanning and Diego Luna. Hall later said that she regretted working with Allen, while Gomez, Chalamet and Fanning donated their salaries to the Time’s Up fund, set up to help victims of sexual assault and harassment.