No one could have picked a worse week to release a Woody Allen movie. The director’s latest, “Wonder Wheel,” debuted Friday at the New York Film Festival during a week when his estranged son, the investigative reporter Ronan Farrow, had written a damning piece about explosive sexual assault allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein that have snowballed and obviously dominated all conversations in the media and beyond.
Anytime Allen releases a new film, the past sexual abuse allegations surrounding his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow that have haunted his career flare up, while audiences and media tend to relitigate their feelings for the whole affair, the filmmaker, and his art. But during a week when sexual predation was top of mind, the mood could not help but mar the release of Allen’s latest film.
Allen usually keeps a low profile as it is, there were no star-studded Q&As or lavish red carpet appearances for the director at NYFF this week. Yet, the filmmaker was uncharacteristically chatty this week in perhaps the most ill-timed interview of 2017. In conversation with the BBC, Allen was asked about Weinstein, the scandal, his relationship with the producer and his general thoughts on these deeply troubling allegations.
Allen, who had worked twice previously with Weinstein during the Miramax days on “Mighty Aphrodite,” and “Bullets Over Broadway,” when asked whether he knew about Weinstein’s behavior, told the BBC, “No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness. And they wouldn’t, because you are not interested in it. You are interested in making your movie.” [editor’s note: Mira Sorvino who starred in “Mighty Aphrodite,” recently came out and spoke out about Weinstein’s sexual harassment behavior towards her].
“But you do hear a million fanciful rumors all the time,” he acknowledged. “And some turn out to be true and some – many – are just stories about this actress, or that actor.”
“The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved,” he added. “Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up. There’s no winners in that, it’s just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that.”
Allen said he hopes the New York Times and New Yorker articles would lead to “amelioration,” but added, “you also don’t want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That’s not right either,” he said. ”But sure, you hope that something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation.”
Weinstein’s woes are not subsiding. Today, the BBC reported that the Metropolitan police are investigating three more sexual assault claims in U.K. In related news, TMZ is reporting that Jay-Z has been expressing his interest in buying the beleaguered Weinstein Company.
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