Sean Penn is skeptical of the sexual assault allegations against his Sweet and Lowdown director, Woody Allen.
When asked point-blank if he would be open to working with the controversial filmmaker in the future, the Oscar-winner didn’t hesitate with his response.
“I’d work with him in a heartbeat,” Penn said during a visit to The Louis Theroux Podcast. “If it was the right [project].”
The actor went on to say that he stands by the 89-year-old filmmaker, who has long been accused of sexual abuse by his daughter, Dylan Farrow, when she was a child (he has repeatedly denied Farrow’s claims).
“Do I think he has a bad rap? With these things, I don’t know anyone well enough to say 100% this didn’t happen, that didn’t happen,” Penn said. “The stories are mostly told by people that I wouldn’t trust with a dime. It just seems so heavily weighted in that way.”
Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty
Sean Penn
Theroux pushed back, asking, “You’re talking generally, right? Or, not specifically about Woody Allen? Because with the Woody Allen situation, it was mainly his estranged daughter but also his son, Ronan Farrow, the journalist.”
“Well, you gave him that title, not me,” Penn said of Farrow.
“I think he’s quite respected, writes for the New Yorker,” Theroux countered.
“I understand that,” Penn replied. “Put it this way: I am not aware — and maybe I’m just an ignoramus, that’s a possibility — I am 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.”
He added, “And when people try to associate what were his, let’s say, much younger girlfriends, right or wrong is not the conversation here. Post-puberty, consensual stuff is to me a different conversation.”
After expressing further skepticism of the allegations against Allen, Penn concluded, “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.”
Courtesy Everett
Woody Allen directing Sean Penn on ‘Sweet and Lowdown’ in 1999
The 89-year-old filmmaker has become a controversial figure in the industry amid renewed scrutiny of Dylan Farrow’s longstanding sexual assault allegation against him. In 1992, Allen’s ex Mia Farrow publicly alleged that he molested their 7-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan. The accusation came some months after Farrow discovered that Allen had entered into a relationship with her 21-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.
Dylan reiterated the allegations herself in 2013. In 2021, Mia, Ronan and Dylan participated in the documentary Allen v. Farrow, in which Dylan told her story publicly and in full for the first time. Allen has consistently denied the allegations against him and has never been charged with a crime (though a Connecticut prosecutor said there was probable cause for a criminal case).
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The continuing controversy gained renewed attention in the wake of the Me Too movement and has prompted comment from many stars of Allen’s films. Some have come to Allen’s defense, like Penn, Scarlett Johansson (“I believe him”), Gina Gershon (“He’s a genius”), and Diane Keaton (“I continue to believe him”), while other have denounced him, including Greta Gerwig (“I will not work for him again”) and Kate Winslet (“It’s f—ing disgraceful”).
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