Sean Penn has defended Woody Allen, saying he would ‘work with him in a heartbeat,’ despite past allegations against the director.
In an interview on The Louis Theroux Podcast, the Milk actor, 64, explained his doubts about claims Allen sexually abused his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.
‘The stories are mostly told by people I wouldn’t trust with a dime. It just seems so heavily weighted in that way,’ Penn said.
He stipulated that he can’t say ‘100% this didn’t happen,’ but that ‘I see he’s not proven guilty, so I take him as innocent, and I would work with him in a heartbeat.’
Penn said: ‘I am not aware of any clinical psychologist or psychiatrist or anyone I’ve ever heard talk or spoken to around the subject of paedophilia that, in 80 years of life, there’s accusations of it happening only once. I’m not aware of that.
‘And when people try to associate what were his, let’s say, much younger girlfriends, right or wrong … is to me a different conversation.’
Penn worked with Allen on the film Sweet and Lowdown in 1999, for which he was nominated for an Oscar for best actor at the 2000 ceremony.
Allen has always denied the allegations, and investigations by social services departments in Connecticut and New York state found no evidence of abuse.
However, Allen’s ex Mia Farrow and their son, investigative journalist Ronan Farrow, have always backed Dylan and her claims.
In contrast, Allen and Farrow’s adopted son, Moses Farrow, has been outspoken in defence of Allen.
The allegations were made after Farrow and Allen split in 1992 after Farrow discovered that Allen was having an affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.
Soon-Yi was 21 and Allen was 56 when they started seeing each other romantically, according to Soon-Yi.
Mia Farrow, however, has alleged the affair may have begun much earlier. Allen and Previn married in 1997 and are still together.
Regardless of the validity of the allegations made by Dylan, many people find Soon-Yi and Allen’s relationship disturbing enough to avoid working with Allen or supporting his projects.
But, like Penn, there are also plenty of powerful people in Hollywood who have defended Allen.
Scarlett Johansson, for example, addressed the situation in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. ‘How do I feel about Woody Allen?’ she said, ‘I love Woody. I believe him, and I would work with him anytime.’
Kristen Stewart also told Variety that she and Jesse Eisenberg decided to work on Café Society with Allen because: ‘If we were persecuted for the amount of shit that’s been said about us that’s not true, our lives would be over.
‘The experience of making the movie was so outside of that, it was fruitful for the two of us to go on with it.’
As the years pass and the effects of the #MeToo movement play out across the media landscape, Woody Allen continues to be one of the most polarising figures in Hollywood.
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