Woody Allen has responded to allegations of abuse from adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in his first interview in 30 years.
Farrow has alleged that the filmmaker sexually abused her in 1992 when she was seven years old – claims that have entered the spotlight again in the wake of HBO‘s Allen v. Farrow docu-series. Allen has repeatedly denied the accusations in the past.
Speaking on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday (March 28), which was filmed in July 2020 prior to the series airing, Allen said of the abuse claims: “It’s so preposterous, and yet the smear has remained.
“And they still prefer to cling to if not the notion that I molested Dylan, the possibility that I molested her. Nothing that I ever did with Dylan in my life could be misconstrued as that.”
Allen has claimed that Farrow was persuaded by her mother, Mia, that he abused her after she found out that he was having an affair with another of her adoptive daughters, Soon-Yi Previn.
“I believe she thinks it,” Allen added of the Dylan Farrow accusations. “She was a good kid. I do not believe that she’s making it up. I don’t believe she’s lying. I believe she believes that.”
Allen and Previn previously addressed the docu-series, calling it “a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods”.
“These documentarians had no interest in the truth. Instead, they spent years surreptitiously collaborating with the Farrows and their enablers to put together a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods,” they said in a statement. “Woody and Soon-Yi were approached less than two months ago and given only a matter of days ‘to respond’. Of course, they declined to do so.
“As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false. Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place. It is sadly unsurprising that the network to air this is HBO – which has a standing production deal and business relationship with Ronan Farrow. While this shoddy hit piece may gain attention, it does not change the facts.”
Following their statement, co-director Amy Ziering offered Allen an interview for the series, saying: “[Allen’s] perspective, his first-person testimony is included throughout the series.
“We have his own voice reading, his own writing, his press conferences in his words, his court testimony. His side is represented. And he’s welcome to do an interview [with us]. Standing offer. We’re sure that HBO would do a fifth episode. We’re here.”
Allen v. Farrow includes interviews with Fletcher and Daisy Previn (two of Mia’s children with André Previn) as well as testimonies from Farrow family friends Casey Pascal and Priscilla Gilma, both of whom corroborate the alleged inappropriate behaviour between Allen and Dylan Farrow.
The 1992 claims by Dylan Farrow were previously investigated and led to no criminal charges.
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