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Sean Penn has leapt to the defence of Woody Allen, claiming that he would work with the director again in a “heartbeat” despite the historic sexual abuse allegations from Allen’s adopted daughter.
Allen, 89, known for directing and starring in films such as Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979), was accused by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow of molesting her when she was a child; he has categorically denied the allegations, which Farrow first made in 1992 when she was seven years old.
Appearing on The Louis Theroux Podcast, Penn – who earned an Oscar nomination for his performance in Allen’s 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown – was asked if he would work with the director again and whether he believed that Allen had received a “bad rap”.
“I'd work with him in a heartbeat if it was the right thing,” replied Penn, 64. Speaking about the allegations, he added: “I don't know anyone well enough to say 100 per cent this didn't happen, that didn't happen.”
Continuing, Penn claimed: “I am not aware of any clinical psychologist or psychiatrist or anyone I’ve ever heard talk or spoken to around the subject of paedophilia that, in 80 years of life, there’s accusations of it happening only once. I’m not aware of that. And when people try to associate what were his, let’s say, much younger girlfriends, right or wrong is not the conversation here.
“So I just think that whatever is the worst of people's suspicions about him, you know, just check them with the facts separate from the moment in the movement and all who benefited from that. I see he’s not proven guilty, so I take him as innocent, and I would work with him in a heartbeat,” concluded the Mystic River star.
Farrow shared her allegations as an adult in an open letter published in 2014 on The New York Times’s website, a 2016 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, and a 2018 interview with CBS. The claims have been supported by her brother, journalist Ronan Farrow.
Allen denied the accusations, and a 1993 investigation by the child sexual abuse clinic of Yale-New Haven Hospital and the New York Department of Social Services cleared him of charges.
Since Farrow published her 2014 essay, several actors who have worked with Allen before, including Kate Winslet, Rebecca Hall, Rachel Brosnahan, Mira Sorvino, Colin Firth, and Greta Gerwig, have publicly expressed regret about working with him.
Although Allen has continued to make films since the accusations resurfaced, including 2023’s French-language melodrama Coup de Chance, his popularity has significantly declined. In 2024 he hinted that he was considering retirement because the “romance of filmmaking is gone”.
English (US) ·