Woody Allen has maintained his innocence regarding longstanding sexual abuse allegations from his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.
The film director was asked about the allegations during an interview with Variety ahead of his appearance at the Venice Film Festival on Monday (September 4), where he premiered his 50th feature film Coup de Chance.
Asked about the allegations that he molested Dylan as a child, detailed in the 2021 series Allen v. Farrow, Allen said: “My reaction has always been the same. The situation has been investigated by two people, two major bodies, not people, but two major investigative bodies. And both, after long detailed investigations, concluded there was no merit to these charges.”
He added: “There was nothing to it. The fact that it lingers on always makes me think that maybe people like the idea that it lingers on. You know, maybe there’s something appealing to people. But why? Why? I don’t know what you can do besides having it investigated, which they did so meticulously. One was less than a year and the other one was many months. And they spoke to everybody concerned and, you know, both came to the exact same conclusion.”
Asked whether he has seen Dylan or her brother Ronan Farrow in recent years, Allen said: “No. Always willing to but no, no.”
Dylan first raised the allegations in 1992 during Allen’s breakup with her adopted mother, Mia Farrow. The claims were investigated at the time, but a Connecticut prosecutor decided not to pursue charges because Dylan, who was seven at the time, was too “fragile” to withstand a trial. The director has always denied the charges. He has never been charged with a crime in this case.
In February 2014, Dylan further detailed the allegations in an open letter with the New York Times, writing: “For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like.” In an interview with Elle in 2021, she said she “didn’t feel like I have a father”.
Elsewhere in the interview with Variety, Allen was asked if he felt like he had been “cancelled” over the allegations. “I feel if you’re going to be cancelled, this is the culture to be cancelled by,” he replied. “I just find that all so silly. I don’t think about it.
“I don’t know what it means to be cancelled. I know that over the years everything has been the same for me. I make my movies. What has changed is the presentation of the films. You know, I work and it’s the same routine for me. I write the script, raise the money, make the film, shoot it, edit it, it comes out. The difference is not from cancel culture. The difference is the way they present the films. It’s that that’s the big change.”
The director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, recently defended the decision to feature controversial directors like Allen and Roman Polanski on this year’s line-up.
Speaking to Variety, Barbera said: “I am on the side of those who say you have to distinguish between the responsibilities of the individual and that of the artist… I am a festival director, not a judge.”