There are few filmmakers working today that are able to stoke immense debate quite like Woody Allen. And in the case of the New York City-based filmmaker, the debate has little to do with the quality of his work, but instead has more to do with the fact that he is working, at all. You see, past sexual assault allegations against a minor have followed the filmmaker throughout his career over the last couple of decades, and with the #MeToo movement becoming a powerful force, the accusations against Allen have only gotten more publicized.
However, when you ask the filmmaker, those allegations have been defeated in court and shouldn’t be considered today. In fact, in a new interview with France24 (via THR), Allen thinks he’s already doing exactly what the #MeToo movement is striving to achieve.
“I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses [and] not one of them has ever complained about me, not a single complaint,” said Allen. “I’ve worked with, employed women in the top capacity, in every capacity, for years and we’ve always paid them exactly the equal of men. I’ve done everything that the #MeToo movement would love to achieve.”
Allen is currently promoting his long-awaited film “A Rainy Day in New York,” which was shelved by Amazon Studios after the filmmaker’s past sexual assault allegations resurfaced last year. Eventually, Allen was given back the rights to the film, but has so far, only found distribution outside of the US. And he says if the film is well-received, a US release is likely.
But even if that doesn’t happen, the filmmaker contends that he’s perfectly happy doing what he’s doing now, having finished production on his most recent film, starring Christoph Waltz, and beginning work on an entirely new script. So for Allen, the idea of being blacklisted in Hollywood doesn’t bother him one bit.
“I couldn’t care less,” admitted the filmmaker. “I’ve never worked in Hollywood. I’ve always worked in New York and it doesn’t matter to me for a second. If tomorrow nobody would finance my films and nobody would finance my theater plays or nobody would publish my books, I’d still get up and write because that’s what I do. So I will always work. What happens to it commercially is another matter.”
He added, “I haven’t thought of retiring. I don’t have to make movies, if people didn’t want to finance my movies I would be very happy working in the theater, or writing books, but I like to get up and write. I don’t like to get up and do nothing.”
“A Rainy Day in New York” is arriving in Europe and other international territories now. As mentioned, there’s no release date set for the US.