Woody Allen says he should be the “poster boy” for the #MeToo movement given that he hasn’t been accused of sexual misconduct by any of the actresses with whom he’s worked over the years.
“I’m a big advocate of the #MeToo movement,” Allen said in an interview with Argentinian news program Periodismo Para Todos, released Monday. “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 should be the poster boy for the #MeToo 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.”
In the interview, the Oscar-winning filmmaker said that it “bothers” him that he gets “linked” to disgraced Hollywood figures like Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens and dozens of women.
“I think in any situation where anyone is accused of something unjustly, this is a sad thing. I think everybody would agree with that… Everyone wants justice to be done. If there is something like the #MeToo 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,” Allen said.
“What bothers me is that I get linked in 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 added.
The interviewer also asked whether Allen had molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, who has said she was sexually abused by her father on Aug. 4, 1992 in an attic when she was 7 years old.
“Of course not, I mean this is just so crazy,” Allen 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.”
Allen has denied all allegations, and he has never been charged. Allen said he felt “distressed” about the allegations resurfacing in the midst of the #MeToo movement.
Watch the interview here.