Woody
Allen faced widening isolation yesterday over allegations that he
molested his daughter more than 25 years ago, after Colin Firth joined
the list of actors saying he would not work with the director again.
Allen’s
estranged, adopted daughter Dylan Farrow has revived claims that he
sexually assaulted her as a seven-year-old in 1992, asking the world to
finally believe her as the sexual harassment watershed convulses
America.
On Thursday, Farrow aired her first television interview as
82-year-old Allen hit back, accusing his ex-lover’s family of
“cynically” exploiting the Time’s Up movement to repeat “discredited”
allegations.
After the interview broadcast, Oscar-winning Firth
became the latest actor and arguably the most high-profile to publicly
rebuke Allen, telling the Guardian newspaper: “I wouldn’t work with him
again.”
Firth starred in Allen’s 2014 film Magic in the Moonlight,
shot before Farrow detailed the alleged abuse for the first time in her
own words in an open letter published on a New York Times blog in 2014.
Her
claim first surfaced in the midst of her parents’ bitter split, when
Allen left the actress Mia Farrow for her adoptive daughter from a
previous marriage, Soon-Yi Previn, 21 years old at the time.
Allen —
the director of more than 50 movies, a four-times Oscar winner and
showered with awards in Europe — has always denied the allegations,
which have never been proven.
He continues to enjoy a glittering career and remains married to Soon-Yi.
But
the sexual harassment firestorm that has brought down Hollywood titans
such as Harvey Weinstein, has seen many reassess Farrow’s claims and has
fuelled a growing backlash against Allen.
In recent weeks, actresses
including Greta Gerwig, Rebecca Hall, Ellen Page and Mira Sorvino, have
announced they regret working with Allen.
Oscar-winner Natalie Portman also told Oprah Winfrey in a televised interview with other actresses that she believed Farrow.
“He’s
lying and he’s been lying for so long,” Farrow told CBS This Morning in
the interview, breaking down into tears when watching a clip of Allen
denying the alleged assault.
Now a 32-year-old married mother of a young girl, Farrow said in retrospect she wished the case had gone to trial.
“Honestly, yes. I do wish that they had,” she told CBS.
A
Connecticut state prosecutor at the time found probable cause to charge
Allen but thought Farrow too fragile to face a celebrity trial.
Allen
said the alleged molestation had been “thoroughly investigated” by the
Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital and New York
State Child Welfare and that both “concluded that no molestation had
ever taken place.”
“Instead, they found it likely a vulnerable child
had been coached to tell the story by her angry mother during a
contentious breakup,” he said.
“What I don’t understand is how is
this crazy story of me being brainwashed and coached more believable
than what I’m saying about being sexually assaulted by my father?” hit
back Farrow.
Woody Allen
