Woody Allen Premieres ‘Irrational Man’ At Cannes, Calls Amazon Deal A “Catastrophic Mistake”

by Olivia Truffaut-WongMay 15, 2015, 9:37 pm >

Woody Allen appeared at the Cannes Film Festival alongside Parker Posey and Emma Stone to premiere his newest film, Irrational Man.

Woody Allen Promotes Irrational Man With Emma Stone

Allen, who wrote and directed the film, walked the red carpet with his two young starlets – Stone and Posey star in the film with Joaquin Phoenix, who plays the main character, philosopher Abe Lucas.

At the press conference for the film, Allen opened up about why he wanted to work with Posey, who makes her Allen debut in Irrational Man, joking, “I’ve always wanted to work with the actor Parker Posey ‘cause I like the name Parker Posey.”

“I would see her in all the offbeat movies and she was always great, and I thought, ‘Will I ever get to go to the set and say, ‘Where is Parker Posey?’ And then I got an opportunity to work with her,” he added.

Allen didn’t only talk about the film he was there to promote. Allen reflected on his past work, and revealed that he never watches his films after he finishes them because he always sees things he wishes he could do better. “When I make the film, I never ever look at it again once I put it out. Because if you look at it again, you can always see what you did wrong, how you could improve it and why it’s terrible as it is. I could very happily take any movie I have and improve it if I could get the cast back,” he said.

He also touched on a few other subjects, including his recent deal with Amazon to produce original ‘television’ content for their streaming service, Amazon Prime, which he called “a catastrophic mistake for me.”

“I’m doing my best with it. I’m struggling with it at home. But I never should have gotten into it. It’s very hard for me. I thought it was going to be easy. You do a movie, it’s a big long thing. But to do six half-hours! It’s very, very hard. I just hope I don’t disappoint Amazon,” Allen said.

Allen admitted he might have gotten in over his head with the television deal, saying he thought doing a string of half-hour episodes would be easy compared to creating 90-minute films. “I’m not good at it. I don’t watch any of those television series, so I don’t know what I’m doing – I’m floundering. It’s going to be a cosmic embarrassment,” he added.

In a recent interview with Deadline, Allen admitted he had no idea what Amazon was before being approached to do the show, let alone what a television show was supposed to look like – Allen told the website he hasn’t seen The Sopranos or Mad Men. “I’m out every night and when I come home, I watch the end of the baseball or basketball game, and there’s Charlie Rose and I go to sleep,” he said.

Meanwhile, Irrational Man premiered to positive reviews, and will hit theaters July 17.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.