Woody Allen decided to break his silence on the long-standing molestation allegations from his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in an interview with the Argentinian news program Periodismo Para Todos last night.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the timeline here, Allen allegedly molested Dylan as a child in 1993. While Allen says that he doesn’t doubt Dylan believes she was molested by him, he claims his ex-wife Mia Farrow convinced her daughter to think so. Dylan eventually responded in a series of tweets earlier this year, claiming the brainwashing theory not only dismisses her as a liar but that it will result in other victims of abuse hesitating to come forward in the future. Moses Farrow, meanwhile, recently defended his father and claimed Mia Farrow did, in fact, brainwash and abuse her children—two of which allegedly attempted suicide in the past.
According to Quartz, Allen is in disbelief that anyone would still think he might’ve molested her. “Of course not, I mean this is just so crazy,” he 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.”
In terms of the #MeToo movement which nurtures victims of sexual abuse with the ability to speak out and publicly share their experiences, Allen maintains that it’s a constructive, positive movement. Expressing his frustration at being included in the movement’s list of dangerous, famous sexual predators, Allen’s defense consists largely of having had a good rapport with every actress he’s ever worked with—and that this should, ideally, make him the “poster boy” for the movement, as opposed to one of its targets.
“I should be the poster boy for the Me Too movement,” he said. “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.”
Unfortunately, what really happened with Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, and their adopted daughter Dylan will never be completely clear. It’s important to believe victims of abuse and molestation, first and foremost, but Allen certainly seems convinced that he’s never perpetrated such an act. His defense of having been accused of merely one person, however, doesn’t really do that defense any favors.
“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. 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.”
