Gina Gershon and Wallace Shawn are defending director Woody Allen, who has been accused of child sexual abuse by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.
In a broadcast interview with Chicago local affiliate WGN9, the actors discussed working with the writer and director on his latest film “Rifkin’s Festival,” with Shawn expressing doubt about Farrow’s allegations and Gershon calling them “a family matter.”
In 2017, Farrow’s allegations against her estranged adoptive father received renewed attention in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which went viral following her brother Ronan Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein. The author has long maintained that Allen molested her when she was a child, discussing the alleged assault in articles and on camera, including the HBO docuseries “Allen v. Farrow.”
Allen has denied the allegations and has not been criminally charged.
Following the groundswell of the #MeToo movement, celebrities began paying renewed attention to Farrow, and actors who worked with Allen became outspoken about their regret in doing so. Some even donated their salary amounts.
When asked by WGN’s Dean Richards about the actors who have distanced themselves from Allen and the allegations against the director at the start of Tuesday’s interview, Gershon replied: “If they’re against (working with Allen), they just shouldn’t.”
The “Riverdale” actress, 59, said she chose to work on “Rifkin’s Festival” with Allen “because he’s a genius.”
“It serves no one to keep great artists from working, even the alleged victims, right?” she continued. “It makes me a little sad that that’s how you lead this whole talk, talking about all that controversy instead of talking about what an incredible artist he is. And for me as an actress, I mean, he’s been inspiring me ever since I can remember. So I was really thrilled to work with him.”
Gina Gershon says working with Woody Allen is ‘a dream come true’: reports
Shawn added that he’s “familiarized (himself) with this case for quite a while” and thinks that “what Dylan (Farrow) says happened didn’t actually happen.”
“I feel that Woody Allen is an innocent man, and it’s an injustice that we’re even talking about this,” he said. “The legal system has decided he’s innocent, so now it’s in the court of public opinion.”
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The “Princess Bride” star, 78, continued: “It’s up to each one of us to study the case if you want to get into it. But I think the more you study it, the more you see that either he did what he’s accused of or he didn’t, either she is strangely mistaken about what she sincerely believes or he is strangely someone who wildly committed a very unlikely crime. And I think he didn’t do it.”
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Shawn also said that everyone “has their strange personal life” and told Richards that “most of your listeners and viewers have strange things in their background.”
Gershon then chimed in that she believes the allegations are “a family matter” and “not really any of our businesses.”
“I find in this world we’re living in right now, it’s a little bit tricky to even talk about it, because things are pulled apart and put on social media and clickbait, and no one is safe,” she said. “It’s sad, and that’s the world we’re living in right now. Because really, I always thought in this country you’re innocent until proven guilty, because if the opposite were true, we’d all be canceled, basically.”
“Rifkin’s Festival” first released in Spain in October 2020 and is due for a limited United States release Friday, per IMDb. It also features actors Michael Garvey and Louis Garrel.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault and are in need of support, please call RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline (800-656-4673). You can also chat with someone online at https://hotline.rainn.org/online.
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