Why Woody Allen Says He Should Be the ‘Poster Boy’ for the #MeToo Movement

Woody Allen said he should be “the poster boy for the #MeToo movement” — and he does not like being “lumped in” with people who have sexually harassed or abused women in the entertainment field.

The film director made his comments in an interview with the Argentinian news program “Periodismo Para Todos,” released the other day.

“I’m a big advocate of the #MeToo movement,” he said.

“I feel when they find people who harass innocent women and men, it’s a good thing that they’re exposing them,” Allen continued. “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.”

#MeToo refers to the social media movement in which numerous women have come forth claiming to have been sexually abused in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. More specifically, it refers to actresses and female reporters who publicly claim they were sexually harassed within the entertainment and media industries.

“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 went on.

“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.

Related: Woody Allen Accuser Calls out Hypocritical Hollywood

Allen’s statement recalls longstanding accusations that he sexually abused Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.

The relationship between Mia Farrow and Woody Allen was a complicated one, to say the least. The two had met in Manhattan in 1979 and were a couple just prior to their first collaborative film, “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy” in 1982, before going on to make 12 more films together.

In 1991, Woody Allen began to date Mia Farrow’s 21-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn (pictured above left, with Allen).

Allen, who as he pointed out is neither Soon-Yi Previn’s father nor her stepfather, is believed to have first met her when she was 10 years old.

They were married in 1997, five years after Mia Farrow caused a sensation by revealing she found nude photographs of Previn in Allen’s apartment. There is no publicly available concrete evidence that he molested the young woman.

Related: Bill Clinton Melts Down While Talking About #MeToo Movement and New Novel

The more pointed accusation is that Allen sexually abused Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, when she was seven. In a highly publicized court trial, a doctor examined Dylan Farrow and found no evidence of sexual abuse. However, Judge Wilk, who presided over the case, did not accept that medical examination was “reliable” evidence.

The trial was discontinued due to Farrow’s young age and fragile emotional state, since it would rely heavily on her testimony. Her mother, Mia Farrow, stood by her daughter after the accusation.

In January, Dylan Farrow spoke out about the allegations in an interview.

“I was taken to a small attic crawl space in my mother’s country house in Connecticut by my father,” Farrow said. “He instructed me to lay down on my stomach and play with my brother’s toy train that was set up. And he sat behind me in the doorway, and as I played with the toy train, I was sexually assaulted … As a seven-year-old I would say, I would have said, he touched my private parts.”

Mia Farrow’s adopted son, Ronan Farrow, has taken the side of his mother and sister, even as his adopted brother, Moses Farrow, has defended Woody Allen against the sexual abuse accusations.

“Not worth saying much to dignify the repeated campaign to discredit my sister, often by attacking our mother. This happens every time Dylan speaks, so this is all I’ll offer: My mother did an extraordinary job raising us, and none of my siblings with whom I’ve spoken ever witnessed anything but love and care from a single mom who went through hell to keep her kids safe,” Ronan Farrow wrote in a blog post.

Ronan Farrow, who was known as Mia Farrow’s adopted son Satchel before he changed his name, ironically has become a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He helped launch the #MeToo movement by exposing Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who is currently facing trial.

(photo credit, homepage image: Woody Allen, CC BY 2.0, by Raffi Asdourian; photo credit, article image: Soon-Yi Previn and Woody Allen, CC BY 2.0, by David Shankbone)