Academy Award winning filmmaker Woody Allen said in an interview released on Monday that he should be the "poster boy" for the #MeToo movement despite accusations he sexually assaulted his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.
"It’s funny — I should be the poster boy for the #MeToo movement because I’ve worked in movies for 50 years," the controversial filmmaker said in an interview with Argentina’s "Periodismo Para Todos." "I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses, hundreds. And not a single one — big ones, famous ones, ones starting out — have ever… suggested any kind of impropriety at all. I’ve always had a wonderful record with them."
When Farrow was seven years old, she told her mother, actress Mia Farrow, that Allen molested her. Allen denied the allegations and was never charged with a crime. After Mia Farrow found nude photos of her adopted daughter from a previous marriage, Soon-Yi Previn, in Allen's apartment, the filmaker confessed to having an affair. Allen ultimately married Previn, and the two are still a couple.
"Everyone wants justice to be done — if there’s something like the #MeToo movement now, you root for them," Allen said. "You want them to bring to justice these terrible harassers, these people that do all these terrible things. And I think that’s a good thing."
The 82-year-old filmmaker added he was upset that he has been lumped in with people who've been accused by numerous women of abuse.
"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," Allen said. "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."
Allen's son, Ronan Farrow was one of the first reporters to publish a story on film mogul Harvey Weinstein's numerous sexual abuse and harassment allegations.
"I’m in principle and in spirit completely in favor of their bringing to justice genuine harassers," Allen said. "Now if someone is innocent, they get swept up, I think that’s very sad for the person. That’s unjust. But otherwise, I think it’s a very good thing to expose harassment."