Woody Allen Thinks He Should Be “Poster Boy” For #MeToo

In the midst of the #MeToo movement, there has been renewed interest in the allegations that Woody Allen sexually assaulted his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in 1992, with multiple actors who have worked on Allen’s films recently speaking out with regret about having done so. The director has mostly stayed silent on the matter, mostly choosing just to reiterate his denial of the allegations, but now he has opened up further.

Allen appeared this week on the Argentinian news program Periodismo Para Todos, where journalist Jorge Lanata interviewed the filmmaker about a number of topics, in particular the assault allegations facing him and the Me Too movement in general.

On Farrow’s accusations, Allen believes that this is a matter that has already been sufficiently covered. “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,” he said. “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.”

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As for Me Too, Allen noted his support for the principles behind the 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,” he said. “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.”

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But his issue with the movement, he explained, is that he has been “lumped in” in with people who have been accused of much more than he has. “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 even claimed that he “should be the poster boy for the Me Too movement,” based on his track record of working with many women over the course of his career. “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.”

The discussion also covered how this issue has been reflected in Allen’s filmography, particularly 1979’s Manhattan, which is about a 17-year-old (played by Mariel Hemingway) dating a 42-year-old (played by Allen). The director explained that he thought that the age gap was just a funny premise. “We thought it’d give us an opportunity to make many jokes, you know with an older man and a younger woman,” he said. “We thought constantly making jokes where the girl doesn’t know what the man is talking about and where his references are his generation’s and her references are hers.”