Woody Allen has said he is “sad” for Harvey Weinstein as the producer faces numerous allegations of sexual assault.
(JTA) — Filmmaker Woody Allen called the allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein and the responses to them “sad” in an interview with the BBC.
“The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved,” he said in the interview published on Sunday. “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.
Allen, who like Weinstein is Jewish, in the early 1990s was accused of abusing his daughter Dylan Farrow, shortly after his separation from wife Mia Farrow. She divorced Allen after learning of his affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, who Allen married in 1997.
Weinstein helped to revive Allen’s career after the alleged crimes came to light. He produced several of Allen’s films, including the Oscar-award winning “Mighty Aphrodite.”
Allen told the BBC he had heard “rumors” about Weinstein’s conduct, but “No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness.”
Allen said he hoped the allegations of assault, first reported on Oct. 5 in the New York Times, would lead to “some amelioration.” He 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.”
Allen’s son Ronan Farrow interviewed 13 women who said Weinstein harassed or assaulted them and reported about it in the New Yorker.
Last week, on Oct. 8, Weinstein, 65, was fired from the movie production firm he started in 2005, The Weinstein Company. On Saturday he was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
