Allen responded to Ronan Farrow's explosive essay in The Hollywood Reporter yesterday, which re-explored the long-standing abuse allegations against the director.
Following blistering allegations made by his estranged son Ronan Farrow about how the media doesn’t talk about sexual abuse accusations made against his father, Woody Allen has responded to what was said in the essay.
Journalist Farrow had written an op-ed in The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday (May 11th), moments before Allen’s press conference ahead of the opening of his new movie Café Society at Cannes Film Festival.
In that piece, Ronan questioned why the media wasn’t asking hard-hitting questions about the accusations his sister, Dylan Farrow, made against their estranged father dating back to the early ‘90s. Dylan repeated those allegations in an open letter in the New York Times blog in February 2014, but accused the media industry of silencing her by not effectively following it up.
Woody Allen responded to Ronan Farrow's essay
Speaking to journalists the following day (May 12th), Allen responded to Farrow’s letter in bullish manner. “What should we talk about? I’m game” he told assembled reporters.
“I never read anything about me, these interviews I do, anything,” Allen told Vanity Fair some time later. “I said everything I had to say about that whole issue in The New York Times," referring to his own response to Dylan's letter over two years ago. “I have moved so far past it. I never think about it. I work. I said I was never going to comment on it again. I said everything I have to say about it.”
More: Critics weigh in after Woody Allen’s ‘Café Society’ Cannes opening
“I never read anything,” Allen said. “I never read what you say about me or the reviews of my film. I made the decision I think five years ago never to read a review of my movie. Never read an interview. Never read anything, because you can easily become obsessed with yourself. [It’s] a bad idea to consume yourself with this stuff.”
“You should do your work, not call up and find out how the grosses are, how is the film doing, how are the reviews. Forget about all that. Just work. It’s worked for me. I’ve been very productive over the years by not thinking about myself. I don’t like to hear that a critic thinks my film is a masterpiece and I don’t like to hear that a critic thinks my film misses.”
He also responded to the ‘rape joke’ that Cannes opening night host Laurent Lafitte made at his expense, which many commented upon as re-opening the same can of worms.
“I am completely in favor of comedians making any jokes they want,” Allen said. “I am a non-judgmental or [non]-censorship person on jokes. I’m a comic myself and I feel they should be free to make whatever jokes they want… …It would take a lot to offend me.”
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