No, seriously, why are we? And how? It seems like a fairly cut and dry situation with everything that has been brought up against the director, but perhaps it just isn’t that simple. Scarlett Johansson, who worked with writer/director Woody Allen on the films Match Point, Scoop and Vicky Christina Barcelona, has been vocal about her support, and recently addressed it again.
In 2019, while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Johansson said, “I love Woody. I believe him, and I would work him anytime.”
In a recent interview with The Daily Telegraph, Johansson addressed her support for Allen, who has been disgraced in the film community over sexual abuse allegations made by his stepdaughter, Dylan Farrow. The claims, first emerged in 1992 and brought up again in the wake of the #MeToo movement, have been consistently denied by Allen and have been investigated and dismissed by New York authorities.
Johansson is one of few names to have stood by Allen’s side since the allegations were brought to light. Two other examples are Gina Gershon and Wallace Shawn, who both defended their choice in 2022 to star in Allen’s 2020 film Rifkin’s Festival. In an interview with Chicago’s WGN News Gershon stated that “it serves no one” to prevent Allen from working, while Shawn said, “I feel that Woody Allen is an innocent man.”
Johansson did not retract or deny her claims, but told The Daily Telegraph that it was “hard to know” if she had experienced any fallout in both her professional or personal life since the 2019 statement.
“You never know what the domino effect is, exactly,” Johansson said. “But my mom always encouraged me to be myself, [to see] that it’s important to have integrity and stand up for what you believe in,” adding, “At the same time, I think it’s also important to know when it’s not your turn. I don’t mean that you should silence yourself. I mean sometimes it’s just not your time. And that’s something I’ve understood more as I’ve matured.”
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
