Though numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against a range of individuals have bubbled up from within Hollywood in recent months, some within the industry who have long faced accusations have not suffered the same level of scrutiny or consequence.
Filmmaker Woody Allen is among those previously accused. Now some people are beginning to ask: When will it be Allen’s turn to face the music?
One of those people pushing the issue is Dylan Farrow, the adopted daughter of Allen and actress Mia Farrow.
Now 32, Dylan Farrow has for years publicly accused her father of pedophilia.
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“Why is it that Harvey Weinstein and other accused celebrities have been cast out by Hollywood, while Allen recently secured a multimillion-dollar distribution deal with Amazon, greenlighted by former Amazon Studios executive Roy Price before he was suspended over sexual misconduct allegations?” Farrow asked in a recent op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.
Allen, 82, currently has a film in theaters titled “Wonder Wheel.” He’s also producing a film called “A Rainy Day in New York,” presumably to be released next year.
“I have long maintained that when I was seven years old, Woody Allen led me into an attic, away from the babysitters who had been instructed never to leave me alone with him. He then sexually assaulted me,” Dylan wrote. “I told the truth to the authorities then, and I have been telling it, unaltered, for more than 20 years.”
She has also written in the past that as a child, she hid under beds and locked herself in bathrooms to avoid her father.
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Dylan Farrow called out some of the actresses who have continued to work with Allen even as they claim to be feminists. She specifically named Kate Winslet, Blake Lively and Greta Gerwig — and used their recent statements condemning Harvey Weinstein as examples of their hypocrisy.
Farrow’s allegations against Allen date all the way back to 1993, when Connecticut State Attorney Frank Maco announced he would not be prosecuting the filmmaker despite his reportedly having probable cause. Ever since that decision, Farrow has publicly denounced Allen and those who work with him.
In recent years, more artists have spoken up about Allen. Director and producer Judd Apatow tweeted this year, “It is sad that he [Allen] is obsessed with all these young actresses, and none of them run when offered the job.”
Actress and activist Ellen Page also wrote a Facebook post this year, saying working with Allen on the film “To Rome with Love” was the “biggest regret” of her career.
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“I am ashamed I did this,” she wrote. “I had yet to find my voice and was not who I am now and felt pressured, because ‘of course you have to say yes to this Woody Allen film.’ Ultimately, however, it is my choice what films I decide to do and I made the wrong choice. I made an awful mistake.”
Such indications aren’t enough for Dylan Farrow — who sees the industry as complicit in its support for people like Allen.
“It isn’t just power that allows men accused of sexual abuse to keep their careers and their secrets,” Farrow wrote. “It is also our collective choice to see simple situations as complicated and obvious conclusions as a matter of ‘Who can say’? The system worked for Harvey Weinstein for decades. It works for Woody Allen still.”
Zachary Leeman is the PopZette editor. He can be reached at [email protected].
(photo credit, article images: Woody Allen, CC BY-SA 3.0, by Bernard Boyé)
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