CBS has released a previously unseen interview with Woody Allen in which he again denies Dylan Farrow’s claims that he molested her as a child. The director also addresses Hollywood’s public reaction to the allegations, considering actors who have expressed regrets about working with him “well-intentioned but stupid”.
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Though it was just released (via Paramount Plus) on Sunday, March 28th, the seat shows Allen, 85, with Lee Cowan for “CBS Sunday Morning” last July. Several outlets have noted that the footage was shot prior to the release of the HBO documentary series “Allen v. Farrow,” so claims made in that film are not mentioned.
What is being discussed are allegations made by Allen’s ex daughter, Mia Farrow, who was 7 years old when she said Allen molested her. According to People, the allegations became public during Allen and Farrow’s high-profile breakup in 1992. The longtime couple broke up after Mia discovered Allen was romantically involved with her adoptive daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who would eventually marry Allen. (He was in his late 50s at the time, while Previn was either a freshman or a high school graduate.)
Allen has long contradicted Dylan’s allegations of sexual abuse, leading to an investigation but not to indictment against the director.
“Nothing I’ve ever done with Dylan in my life could be so misunderstood,” said Allen in the CBS interview when asked about Dylan’s allegations. He further suggests, as he did before, that Mia trained Dylan to view interactions she had with him as inappropriate and sexual.
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“Why would a man who’s 57 years old … I’ve never been blamed for anything in my life,” says Allen at one point in the segment. “I’m suddenly pulling up to Mia’s country house (with) a 7-year-old girl in the middle of a controversial custody battle?” he asks. “It’s just – on the surface, I didn’t think it needed an investigation.
“It’s so absurd, and yet the smear has remained. And they still prefer to hold on to the idea that I molested Dylan, the possibility that I molested them. Nothing I have ever had with Dylan in my life did so could be misunderstood, “says Allen.
Allen says he thinks Dylan believed she was molested.
“I think she thinks so. She was a good kid. I don’t think she made it up. I don’t think she’s lying. I think she believes that,” he told the CBS reporter.
In “Allen v. Farrow,” Dylan described how he underwent “strenuous” evaluations when investigators tried to determine if she was telling the truth by claiming that Allen had molested her. She said that over three months she felt interviewed so extensively and repeatedly that she “lied” for having to defend herself so often.
When asked in the CBS 2020 interview about actors who have distanced themselves or publicly said they would not work with him again because of Dylan’s claims, Allen said, “I think they’re stupid. They mean well, but they’re stupid They’re just tracking down a perfectly innocent person and making that lie possible. “
He gave a similar answer to the question last spring when he told The Guardian, “Actors have no clue of the facts and hold on to a selfish, public, secure position … That’s what actors and actresses are like and [denouncing me] became a fashionable thing, like everyone was suddenly eating kale. “
The 2020 CBS interview coincided with the release of Allen’s memoir last summer. In a statement via Variety, the producers addressed why CBS News held onto the footage for so long: “The interview, which took place during an active news cycle last summer, is on now as interest in the filmmaker controversy is renewed.” “
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The interview was packaged for Paramount Plus along with a 2018 interview with Dylan Farrow about her side of the story.
Allen’s rep, Letty Aronson, told Variety early Sunday that Allen’s team hadn’t learned that the 2020 interview would be paired with Dylan’s 2018 interview and streamed.
“It’s completely dishonest and scandalous. I hope future people will consider this before trusting the show,” said Aronson.
After the “Allen v. Farrow” documentaries premiered on HBO last month, Allen and Previn slammed the project as a “hatchet job full of falsehoods,” and Allen again “categorically” denied Dylan’s allegations. They also said through their spokesman that the filmmakers only gave them “a matter of days” to respond to the claims made in the film and declined to do so.
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