Sean Penn weighed in on the sexual abuse allegations Woody Allen has faced from daughter Dylan Farrow
On The Louis Theroux Podcast, the actor questioned the stories of Allen’s accusers
Of collaborating with Allen again after 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown, Penn said, “I’d work with him in a heartbeat”
Sean Penn is weighing in on the allegations against Woody Allen.
“I’d work with him in a heartbeat,” Penn, 64, said on the Tuesday, May 13 episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, adding, “if it was the right thing.”
The 89-year-old filmmaker, who directed Penn in the 1999 musical comedy Sweet and Lowdown, has long faced accusations of sexual abuse from his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, which he has denied. During Allen’s 1992 split from longtime partner Mia Farrow, Dylan, now 39, alleged that he had molested her as a child. (The Annie Hall Oscar winner, who was never charged with a crime, later married Mia’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn.)
“I don’t know anyone well enough to say, ‘100 percent this didn’t happen, that didn’t happen,’” Penn told host Louis Theroux. “The stories are mostly told by people that I wouldn’t trust with a dime. It just seems so heavily weighted in that way.”
The Oscar-winning Milk star acknowledged that he may be “just an ignoramus,” but added that he is “not aware of any clinical psychologist or psychiatrist or anyone I’ve ever heard talk or spoken to around the subject of pedophilia that in 80 years of life, there’s accusations of it happening only once. I’m not aware of that.”
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Sean Penn and Woody Allen on the set of ‘Sweet and Lowdown’ in 1999
After seemingly objecting to Theroux’s assertion that Dylan’s brother Ronan, who has supported her claims, is a journalist — “you gave him that title, not me,” Penn said — he continued, “Let’s just take a second. That’s all I’m saying. I see he’s not proven guilty, so I take him as innocent, and I would work with him in a heartbeat.”
Penn concluded by urging listeners to focus on “the facts separate from the moment and the movement and all,” apparently referencing the #MeToo movement, which empowers survivors of sexual violence to speak out.
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Last September, Mia, 80, spoke candidly about her ex, saying on CBS Sunday Morning that she “completely understands” actors deciding to work with him. “I’m not one who’d say, ‘Oh, they shouldn’t.’ “
Allen has pointed out that investigations into Dylan’s accusations “concluded there was no merit to these charges,” and said in 2023 he was “always willing to” meet with her and Ronan, 37.
Bruce Glikas/Getty; Stephanie Augello/Variety via Getty; Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty
(Left-right:) Dylan Farrow in 2021, Mia Farrow on May 8; Woody Allen in 2013
Among the Hollywood stars directed by Allen who later expressed regret are Kate Winslet and Drew Barrymore, while Colin Firth and Greta Gerwig have stated they would never work with the filmmaker again. Javier Bardem, meanwhile, has defended Allen, and Gina Gershon has opined that the filmmaker’s relationships a “family matter.”
Allen, who has worked more sporadically in recent years, last wrote and directed the 2023 film Coup de Chance. Among Penn’s upcoming screen projects are Ukraine War anthology War through the Eyes of Animals and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another starring Leonardo DiCaprio, in theaters Sept. 26.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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