Veteran Hollywood film director Woody Allen says he should be a “poster boy” for #MeToo, given his decades of experience in the film industry, and praised the anti-sexual harassment movement.
“I’m a big advocate of the #MeToo movement,” Allen said during an interview with Argentinian news program Periodismo Para Todos on Monday. “I feel when they find people who harass innocent women and men, it’s a good thing that they’re exposing them. But you know, I should be the poster boy for the #MeToo movement. Because I have worked in movies for 50 years.”
“I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses and not a single one — big ones, famous ones, ones starting out — have ever ever suggested any kind of impropriety at all,” Allen continued. “I’ve always had a wonderful record with them.”
The “Manhattan” director was recently the subject of a decades-old sexual assault allegation by his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow, who accused him of molestation when she was seven years old. Allen has vehemently denied the allegations, while also receiving backing from his other adopted child Moses Farrow.
The 82-year-old filmmaker has also long-been subject to criticism over his marriage to his 47-year-old step-daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who was adopted by Farrow during her first marriage to actress Mia Farrow.
However, Allen maintains that he is bothered by being linked to disgraced Hollywood figures like Harvey Weinstein and the many industry elites accused of sexual misconduct.
“I think in any situation where anyone is accused of something unjustly, this is a sad thing,” Allen said. “I think everybody would agree with that… Everyone wants justice to be done. If there is something like the #MeToo movement now, you root for them, you want them to bring to justice these terrible harassers, these people who do all these terrible things. And I think that’s a good thing.”
“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– 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,” he continued.
Despite affirming his support for the #MeToo movement, Allen has previously expressed concern that such a climate could lead to a “witch hunt” against innocent men.
“The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved,” he said last October. “Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up. 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.”
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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