Woody Allen, 77, complains about being too old to play the lead: ‘I like to be the lover’

I’ll admit to liking Woody Allen’s films. I can’t believe that’s a controversial statement at this point, but it is. Mostly because there are so many people still mad about Woody having an affair with his step-daughter Soon Yi Previn. He was with Soon Yi’s mother at the time, Mia Farrow. Well, Woody and Mia split up and it was a terrible mess and part of Woody’s image never recovered. Woody and Soon Yi ended up marrying and adopting two daughters of their own and ever since then… Woody makes a movie a year, and some of them are hits and some of them are misses. Hollywood has “forgiven” Woody since the scandal – since the 1992 scandal, Woody has been nominated for something like EIGHT Oscars (for screenplays and directing), and he even won last year for Midnight in Paris (which wasn’t even his best film in the past ten years).

So, as I said, I like his films. I like that he still has stuff to say as a writer and as a director, and I often enjoy his films when I chance upon them or when I seek them out. His new film is called Blue Jasmine, and it’s a lead role for Cate Blanchett – it’s the first time they’ve ever worked together. To promote the film, Woody have a rare interview to the Wall Street Journal Magazine – the photos are by Terry Richardson, which is weird, right? Anyway, you can read the full profile here, and here are some interesting highlights:

Woody on not being able to play the romantic lead: “It’s an inevitable disaster of aging, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t play the scenes where I’m sitting opposite Diane Keaton or Mia or Dianne Wiest or Judy Davis. If I think of parts for myself now, all I can be is Pop, the lovable doorman backstage at the theater who takes phone numbers for the guys, or the psychiatrist, or the amiable dad at the wedding. I like to be the lover.”

His fondness for filming long scenes in one take: “I don’t have a technical attention deficit disorder, but I have an honorary one. I don’t have the patience or the concentration to shoot hours of us talking in a two-shot, and then your single and my single and from over your shoulder and over my shoulder. I like to do as many pages as I can in one take.”

He’s cheap and he’s fine with it: His films typically cost about $18 million to make, which is next to nothing these days. Most of them go on to make a modest profit—if not in the United States, then when they’re shown worldwide—and once in a while he has a hit on the order of Midnight in Paris. It’s a fairly foolproof formula, even if it seems to have little appeal to the studios now, who would rather make bigger bets in hopes of bigger payouts. Allen’s modest budgets enable him to retain total control of his films, something that’s seldom granted to directors anymore, and to be flexible when it comes to probably his greatest strength as a director: casting memorable actors in memorable parts. “I’m not in the hit-flop business,” he explained. “I make a film and if it’s a big hit it’s not going to do anything special for me. If it’s a disaster it won’t ruin anything, because I’ll already be working on the next. The people who play the hit-flop game suffer a lot when they have the flops. I don’t, but then I don’t get the highs either.”

He loves no-drama actors: Allen doesn’t pay star salaries. His actors get the union minimum, with no dickering. And yet he has no trouble finding stars to work for him. Actors—women especially—love to appear in Woody Allen films because he makes them look great, writes interesting roles for them and, based on his track record of 11 best actress or best supporting actress nominations so far, there’s a decent chance they might get some Oscar attention. “We have very good luck because actors aren’t always offered a lot of stimulating things,” Allen said. “The kinds of films that get made now don’t always have great acting roles. So when people get a chance to really act, even if it’s for no money, which it is, they grab it.”

Cate Blanchett on working with Woody: “This kind of opportunity doesn’t come along all the time. The character’s like a combination of Ibsen, Tennessee Williams and Shakespeare. There’s such electricity in the gap between her knowing and not knowing.”

He can audition actors in less than a minute: “I find the whole experience very awkward, because I am socially awkward. I don’t like meeting people. Once in a while a star will come in and Juliet [his casting director] will say you have to let this person sit down for a minute. This is an argument she and I have all the time. She thinks they want to talk. To me, the person always seems to be relieved. They’re happy to be in and out.”

He doesn’t like to “direct” actors: “I’ve worked with amazing people over the years. Meryl Streep, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Judy Davis and Gena Rowlands, one after the other, these fabulous women—what do I have to teach them? If Cate, or anyone, is doing it too fast or too slow, or too theatrically or not theatrically enough, I might go over and say, ‘Why don’t you try that a little faster next time?’ They do it, and that’s the extent of my direction.”

He works for his sanity, even at the age of 77: “You know in a mental institution they sometimes give a person some clay or some basket weaving? It’s the therapy of moviemaking that has been good in my life. If you don’t work, it’s unhealthy—for me, particularly unhealthy. I could sit here suffering from morbid introspection, ruing my mortality, being anxious. But it’s very therapeutic to get up and think, Can I get this actor; does my third act work? All these solvable problems that are delightful puzzles, as opposed to the great puzzles of life that are unsolvable, or that have very bad solutions. So I get pleasure from doing this. It’s my version of basket weaving.”

[From WSJ Magazine]

Woody’s sometime-writing partner Marshall Brickman also talks to the WSJ about Woody and why he’s still working, and Brickman explained it this way: “I don’t think people understand the degree to which Woody is relentlessly middle-class. From what I gather he’s a good family man. He’s a very good father, perhaps surprisingly so. He has a very strong, perhaps overwhelming work ethic. I don’t think he knows how not to get up in the morning, get on the treadmill, practice the clarinet, write.” I’m assuming the “good father” thing is about his two daughters with Soon Yi, not with Ronan Farrow, his biological son with Mia. Ronan hates his guts. Which is understandable. Anyway… on the sliding scale of “evil” I don’t think Woody really compares to someone like Roman Polanski. And I’ll totally watch Cate Blanchett in a Woody Allen film.

Photos courtesy of Terry Richardson/WSJ Magazine.

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103 Responses to “Woody Allen, 77, complains about being too old to play the lead: ‘I like to be the lover’”

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  1. LahdidahBaby says:

    Yah. And all his daughters are now also too old to be his lovers.

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      Right. Such a good father. Taking nude pictures of your step daughter, then marrying her. I’m surprised there isn’t some kind of good father award for that. Ugh.

      • J says:

        Seriously!!!! And can we group Samuel L Jackson into this perverted group too- not normal, not OK, but both are still very lucrative. And Paula Dean is banished?? Ladies something ain’t right here!

      • Spooks says:

        What did Samuel do?

      • doofus says:

        perhaps I’m out of the loop here, but what did Samuel L. Jackson do?

      • JennJennM says:

        You’re thinking of Morgan Freeman and his step-granddaughter, not Samuel L. Jackson.

    • BooBooLaRue says:

      Spot on.

  2. Eleonor says:

    I am adopted, and the Soon-Y mess still freaks me out.

    • Ag says:

      a former co-worker of mine took an acting class that soon-y was in. my co-worker perceived her as being mentally challenged. so, that adds another super-awful and sad layer to it all.

      • cubfan34 says:

        Soon-Yi received a bachelor’s degree in art from Drew University in 1995 and a master’s degree in special education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1998.

      • Greenie says:

        She is slow, that’s been an acknowledged fact. Anybody with money can get a degree. What do you call a medical student who graduated with a 60% average?

        A doctor.

  3. Andrea says:

    Women are told they are “too old” to play the lover after age 35, Woody. Let’s stop pretending that it’s the same reality for men and women.

    • Jennykins says:

      I chuckled that he was whining about being 70 and to old to play romantic parts. No idea/empathy for what the ladies go through.
      Also you make movies. Make one with older romantic leads.

  4. Agnetha says:

    Woody, you’re gross.

    • BW says:

      I agree. He seems like a perv.

      I’ve never found him funny. I watch his movies, and say, “Ah, that was a joke,” but it doesn’t make me laugh. I’ve tried to like his movies, but I’ve hated every single one I’ve watched, and I’ve tried 6 or 7 of them.

    • Nicolette says:

      He seems like one of the many slimy pedophiles that run Hollywood.

    • gogoGorilla says:

      Agreed. He totally skeeves me out.

  5. stellalovejoydiver says:

    Terry Richardson and Woody Allen make perfect sense.
    The Soon Yi thing is unethical, but Mia also accused him sexually molesting her adoptive daughter Dylan.
    http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/26/nyregion/farrow-testifies-that-daughter-accused-allen-of-molestation.html?src=pm

    • Jess says:

      And then she backed the hell away from those claims when she realised at the very best, she was coming across as a negligent parent. If her claims were true she knew and ignored that her child was being molested and only spoke up after she discovered Woody was cheating on her. The second it was brought up that her claims and the general image she was painting of her home life wasn’t just hurting Woody’s image, but her own, she dropped it.

      If Mia really does think Woody is a predator, and really does think Soon-Yi is not a fully functioning adult, as was often implied, her treatment of Soon-Yi was appalling. If my mother had thought her boyfriend was preying on me, she would have helped me, protected me, pushed me into counselling, hell she would have tried to have me sectioned before she let me run off with him. Mia went straight on the attack, cut Soon-Yi off entirely and had Previn do the same, basically ensuring that Soon-Yi had no choice but to stay with Woody.

      If Woody is everything Mia says he is, then she’s let down her children terribly. If he’s not what she’s claimed, well then her behavior towards Soon-Yi makes sense, but she’s told some sickening lies.

      • stellalovejoydiver says:

        Who knows really?
        A lot of mothers look away or are lying to themselves or maybe they have an intiution that something might be off, but they not sure whether to trust themselves.
        Also Mia had 8 children at that time, maybe she didn´t pay close attention to everything.

      • doofus says:

        the accounts Farrow gave were verified by a nanny or two, I thought.

        however, even if what you say is true, that Farrow was neglectful (and likely in denial, as a LOT of women in her situation are), it doesn’t excuse or negate Allen’s behavior.

        he acted very inappropriately with Dylan, to the point that she felt uncomfortable with her own father.

        and when a person’s own son (Ronan) is so vehemently disgusted by his behavior, you know something is amiss.

      • mercyme says:

        I thought Mia didn’t know about Woody and Soon-Yi until she discovered some nude photos Woody had taken. I can see how that might open up a whole can of worms and a closer examination of his behaviour with the other children.

        The guy seems like a Class A narcissist at the very least. I can’t watch his movies anymore. He gets some good actors but he also has or had fetishes for some very bad ones, and his writing is nothing special compared to his earlier works.

      • Greenie says:

        He was extremely psychologically abusive to Mia. I’m sure it was not easy for her to turn against him.

    • Lillith says:

      Theres also the wierd competitive relationship he had with Ronan as a child. This went beyond the standard Oedepus complex. I’m glad he got out of their lives, God knows he was moving in on Dylan and who knows what harm would have befallen Ronan. Sicko!

      There are far too many movies out there and small unrecognised genius film makers for me to spend a penny on this animal.

  6. marie says:

    blech, gross dude..

    how old was Woody when he and Soon Yi hooked up? if she was young then that makes him just as gross as Polanski in my opinion. don’t give him a pass simply because you like his movies.

    • Sarah says:

      I read Mia Farrow’s autobiography, and she suspected it might have been from Soon-Yi’s mid-teens onwards. The details of the alleged abuse of their daughter Dylan are much clearer and creepier, if anything, and started when the child was much younger.

      • JM says:

        I read her autobiography too and the only thing I can clearly remember is when Frank Sinatra (Mia’s 1st husband) found out about it, he called her up and asked if she wanted Woody’s legs broken. Gotta love Old Blue Eyes!

    • LahdidahBaby says:

      There was a PEOPLE Mag story at the time, in which his then-writing-&-producing partner (I forget her name, but they fell out a few years later and were still estranged the last I heard) told People that Woody began seeing Soon Yi because Mia was so wrapped up in their new baby (hers and Woody’s bio son) that he “felt neglected.” She actually excused his taking up with SY because Mia was absorbed in their new baby! Omg. There were pics of Woody and Soon-Yi alone at a night basketball game together when she was just 17. They tried later to say SY was two full years older than she was always thought to be but that an error had been made on her adoption or birth papers. Mia said the pics were NOT art pics, but were super porn poses. Woody had left them on the fireplace mantle and she found them there.

      • fabgrrl says:

        I believe Soon-Yi’s age is a best guess for everyone. From what I understand, she was a street orphan when Mia adopted her.

  7. Dawn says:

    I like his movies too! Always have and if I were an actor I think I would work with him in a NY minute.

    • LahdidahBaby says:

      I love his movies! Always have. It’s that old story of the flawed man who is a brilliant artist. I just can’t stand HIM anymore. But I still do see most of his films.

    • TheOriginalKitten says:

      I don’t like all of his movies but he’s definitely made a few gems.

      That being said, he really is gross.

      • LahdidahBaby says:

        Agree wholeheartedly, Kitten. I shall just refrain from bedding him, which will be easypeezy. 😉

      • Beatriz says:

        Same, I don’t like all of his movies, but I did like Manhattan and Boardwalk Danny Rose (and I just loves some parts of Deconstructing Harry–the scenes where Kirsti Alley screams and cusses gets me every time). But yeah, he is gross, that’s why I’ve never paid to see one of his films.

  8. Ann says:

    Great, ugly old creep Terry Richardson is photographing ugly old creep Allen. I guess that the theme?

  9. Joanna says:

    huh, how strange. terry richardson’s taking the photo? but woody’s not in some skimpy outfit or doing the cat daddy. oh wait! i guess it’s only women he can only photograph in sexualized ways.

  10. mk says:

    I can’t stand his movies, all his male characters are stand-ins for him, he always hooks up with dumb young ditzy blondes usually while the man is the intellectual nerd. Ughh.

  11. Trillian says:

    Sorry, Woody, but your age has nothing to do with you not being able to play the romantic lead …

  12. poppy says:

    yes, he didn’t drug his victims, BUT, his victims were his own children.
    different? yes.
    equally as horrible? yes.

    maybe when you only stand about 5’2″ tall in height you need children to feel sexy?

    he is a vile, nasty man, entertaining movies or not.

  13. GiGi says:

    I like his movies, too. But I really cannot reconcile his behavior with Soon-Yi. I have an adopted daughter and it is absolutely unfathomable to me that my husband would one day begin a sexual relationship with her. It’s just too much and I can’t get past his actions.

    • Tig says:

      Totally agree with you- it took me a long time to start watching his movies again. Thought Midnight in Paris was great, the Rome one was a total mess, and Barcelona had, well, Barcelona and Vadeem. However, if you want something other than explosions/ comic book characters- your filmmaker choices are few and far between.

    • cubfan34 says:

      Soon-Yi was not his daughter or step-daughter. He and Mia never lived together. Mia testified in court that he paid little attention to her children in the 12 years they dated. The child molesting charges were tossed out.

      • Eleonor says:

        but she still is the sister of his son…

      • GiGi says:

        I’m sorry, let’s play it this way then:

        Your best friend of 12 years starts sleeping with your teenage son. Does that make it alright?

        Adults should not sleep with children. I’m sorry that I just don’t see the vagaries here.

      • Lillith says:

        Ronan put it best. His adopted siblings ARE his family notwithstanding the lack of blood ties. His dad married his sister. Its a credit to Mia that Ronan is such a well adjusted guy, using his mind to change the world. That trauma could have destroyed most.

        Oh and since adopted relationships are so tenuous in Woodys mind, then those 2 adopted daughters must be fair game. Soon Yi must be very nervous now that they are hitting puberty.

      • LahdidahBaby says:

        They did live together, but in two apartments near Central Park–he kept his and she kept hers, but they had keys to each other’s place and everyone came and went as they pleased. (That was how Mia happened on the pornographic pics of Soon Yi.) Clearly, Woody’s coming and going went WAY out of bounds. Yuck.

        Woody was the father figure of that family for, like, 12 years! He and Mia had a baby together, and that baby was the sibling of all Mia’s other kids, including Soon Yi. Woody was the dad of the household from the time SoonYi was a tiny little girl. Nothing makes what he did okay. It was, very simply, incest.

        For survival’s sake, there MUST be some lines drawn in blended families–and the very first line should be, “No sex with your step-children, EVER–even when they grow up, you can NEVER look at them in that way, even if you are no longer with their mother. (And Woody was still very much with Mia when he got into a sexual relationship with Soon Yi–their baby was only about 6 weeks old!)

      • Toot says:

        @cubfan
        He paid enough attention to hook up with Mia’s daughter. So he was around and he’s a pervert.

      • cubfan34 says:

        Soon-Yi Previn said in 1992 that she does not, and never did, consider Woody Allen to be her father, stepfather, or father figure; she said she considers André Previn to be her adoptive father. She also commented that “I was never remotely close to Woody. He was someone who was devoted exclusively to his own children and to his work, and we never spent a moment together.”

      • LahdidahBaby says:

        …and what would you expect her to say, cubfan? C’mon. But even if you give her that claim (and, sorry, but I have to be getting back to the planet earth as soon as I finish this), how about loyalty to her MOTHER?!? While Mia–her mom–was still recovering from childbirth, Soon-Yi was stripping and spreading ’em for the father of her mother’s baby (aka SoonYi’s little brother). Sorry, you can’t clean that up by claiming Woody was a neglectful stepdad. Even the most devout Woody fan (which I used to be) can’t argue convincingly against the bare truth of this incestuous relationship. And while some understanding must be given Soon Yi herself because of her youth at the time and the imbalance of power between her and Woody), the fact remains, big as shit, that she betrayed her mother in an unthinkable way.

      • Yvonne says:

        Cubfan34- You have made several rather specific posts on this thread. Are you Soon-Yi’s publicist? Or are you just so obsessed with Woody Allen you are desperately trying to justify his behavior?

      • Lillith says:

        CubFan

        So he was a shitty boyfriend. How do you date and work with your gf for 12 years, have two bio kids with her but never spend any time at all with the other kids in that home??

        Besides, Soon Yis account is disputed by the other adopted kids who all say that Woody may not have been their dad but they viewed him as a parental figure.

        Soon Yis psychology seems very clear to me. Her parents abandoned her in the streets. Her adopted parents split up. She was hitting adulthood and possibly fearing a third “abandoning” by her adopted mum. So she married her father figure. Problem solved. Now daddy will never leave me. He exploited a very messed up girls irrational fears and he knew it.

      • bluhare says:

        Soon Yi says he was devoted to his own children? I didn’t think he had any until Mia gave him a couple. So that means his own children would be her siblings, right?

      • TheOriginalKitten says:

        “the fact remains, big as shit, that she betrayed her mother in an unthinkable way.”

        THIS. Whenever Woody’s name comes up everyone focuses on his appalling actions but few speak about what Soon Yi did to Mia. It’s all pretty terrible if you ask me.

        Poor Ronan…I would happily cuddle with him to make him feel better about all this disgusting behavior.

  14. Barrett says:

    I like his movies. His characters. For me, though he is up there with Roman Polanski. He crossed a line that should not be crossed in a family dynamic, regardless of if there is blood relation.

  15. silllyone says:

    If he loves “no drama actors” what in the world was he doing with Lindsay Lohan then? Oooops nevermind I forgot what her “job” was these days.

  16. Myrto says:

    I love his movies but recently they’ve been crap. Scoop, Whatever works, To Rome with love were utter crap. Midnight in Paris was bad. I think he’s finished: his last good movie was Match Point, so I’m not sure I’ll be watching Blue Jasmine, although Cate Blanchett’s in it so I’m torn.

  17. Garvels says:

    Pervert!

  18. ruby says:

    Ugh no, for me he’s right there in Roman Polanski territory. Mia may not have been perfect by any stretch, but what he did is repulsive and deeply wrong. I could never condone it. Even if the obsession with Dylan wasn’t true (and I find it more believable than not. The guy seduced one underaged daughter, why is it so hard to believe he was interested in another ?)

    Ever since I learned about all the grossness, I have never watched another movie of his and never will. Anyway I really didn’t get the hype. His films are all the same : wish-fulfillment stories where the male lead is a stand-in for Woody and he beds the pretty ditzy (usually) blonde. There are often uncomfortably sexist undertones too.

  19. It'sjustBlanche says:

    He’s repulsive and he’s been too old for the romantic lead for at least thirty years to say nothing of the fact that he’s been too unappealing for the romantic lead his entire life.

  20. boredbrit says:

    What is it with Hollywood turning a blind eye to creeps. Woody Allen, Polanski, That Jeremy Irons weirdo, Terry Richardson, probably loads more. It’s sickening.

  21. Toot says:

    Woody is on the same level to me as Roman and I don’t support either.

    Yeah, he didn’t drug Soon-Yi, but he had been around her since she was a child. Don’t give me that mess about he never showed the kids any attention or lived with them because if that was the case how did him and Soon-Yi start up?

  22. Crumpets & Crotchshots says:

    Consenting adults and all, I would not put him on the same level as Roman Polanski who forcibly drugged and an ally raped a thirteen year who cried and begged to go home.

    He still is a creep though, and if he doesn’t get why his son hates him, he is seriously lacking something. Yeah, I like his films too, but I’ve figured out that great artist does not necessarily mean great human being.

    I have long felt that to succeed in this industry you need a high degree of douchiness: maybe because you have to be okay with working with major creeps such as this who have power and think only about how your career will benefit.

    • bluhare says:

      Agree Crumpets. In fact sometimes I think great artist = at best really weird human being, and at worst someone like Polanski.

  23. MissNostalgia says:

    No news here; he is just sorry that the female lead would not be cast under 20 years old. Hollywood has an odd tack on perversion, Roman Polanski case in point. As long as they are “artistic geniuses” they get a free pass and ride….

  24. ??? says:

    Yuck. Another pervo-creep who gets a pass in Hollywood because he’s an “artistic genius.”

  25. Thiajoka says:

    This man is disgusting. All of his movies are self-indulgent and autobiographical–they let the audience peer into his very troubled mind. Haven’t seen a movie of his since “Husbands & Wives” which then became disturbing after finding out that he was hooking up with his step-daughter.

  26. Lem says:

    Woody Allen is a creep a perv a mashugana misogynist chauvinist misanthrope.
    This was clear before he molested his older daughter or it was made public he wasn’t trusted around his younger daughter.
    To paraphrase the great Maya Angelou, believe someone the first time they show you who they are.
    Woody Allen is a creeper

  27. Esti says:

    Leaving aside his personal life (which is unbelievably f*cked up), it drives me NUTS to hear him complain about how he’s too old at 77 to play a romantic lead. Because those ladies he lists? Would all be age appropriate co-stars for him. Diane Keaton is ten years younger, and the rest are all around her age. And since he’s played opposite them in the past, he obviously doesn’t think they’re too young for him.

    What he *actually* means with that quote is that he couldn’t cast himself opposite those ladies at the age that he put them in his movies — in their 20s or early 30s. And since he can’t do that, he doesn’t think he can make movies with himself as a romantic lead, because what’s the point if the ladies aren’t 25 anymore, amirite?

    It’s *almost* like karma coming back to bite him. He has all the ability in the world to get any movie you want made and could do something really interesting about romance among older people, but he’s so stuck on the idea that romance and sex are limited to hot young women and the men who can get with them that he’s shutting himself out of interesting roles.

    • chaine says:

      I so agree. “I can’t play the scenes where I’m sitting opposite Diane Keaton or Mia or Dianne Wiest or Judy Davis.” Well, those ladies are probably all still acting, are age appropriate to him, and would love the work (except Mia). So if he can’t play scenes opposite them it’s because of his own lack of imagination and lack of creativity and his inability to actually act and his IMMATURITY in that he is unable to interact with women who are his own age and intellectual equals.

      • bluhare says:

        Diane might not be that thrilled either. They were together for years, and now she’s adopted children . . . .

    • Londerland says:

      “What he *actually* means with that quote is that he couldn’t cast himself opposite those ladies at the age that he put them in his movies — in their 20s or early 30s.”

      This, totally. He doesn’t want to be acting opposite Diane Keaton anymore. He wants to be free to indulge his lust for Scarlett Johanssen et al. Women forty or fifty years younger than him. He wants to do what he always did, which was to re-enact his fantasies onscreen – that this gawky, ugly, un-macho, sickly boy-man would have women like teenage Mariel Hemingway and Juliette Lewis chasing after him, long after the point where his face and scrotum have become indistinguishable.

      I remember loving Woody Allen’s stuff when I was younger (and buying into the whole “oh Soon Yi was never even HIS kid, consenting adults, y’all” BS), but it just died the minute I realised how pathetic and all-consuming the wish-fulfilment element of his films is, and how arrested the wish is. He wants to be the perpetual man child torn apart by passion and tempted by an endless supply of nymphets and really, he ought to have grown out of that by now, and people ought to stop encouraging it.

  28. lisa2 says:

    I love his movies. I notice as the years have gone by they have changed a lot. And I like the pictures. It is just Woody.

    If you didn’t factor in his personal life that was a very interesting interview.

    I’m out now..

  29. Amy Lynne says:

    Good father, eh?

    http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/02/23/reviews/farrow-verdict.html

    He lost in a custody bid of his three kids with Mia Farrow with the judge issuing a scathing opinion that he was a horrible, self involved terrible father and that he may have abused his daugher.

  30. Guesto says:

    It’s a good interview. Woody is an interesting man with an interesting viewpoint and I’ll always have time for his work. That’s really all I care about where he’s concerned, much like Polanski. Their personal lives don’t impact on my enjoying their output.

    • ReelChildofHell says:

      I agree. It’s hard sometimes to separate the person from the art. I do find him vile, but I also appreciate his storytelling. “Crimes & Misdemeanors” is a gem.

    • gefeylich says:

      Sorry; I find it difficult to ignore the whole child rape thing and just “enjoy” Allen’s and Polanski’s films for their “artistic merit.”

      People seem strangely eager to forgive these men for their disgusting crimes. Why is that?

      • Stormy says:

        I don’t know which is why I don’t watch any of their movies.

        Why Hollywood forgives this mess is beyond me.

  31. TheWendyNerd says:

    I like Woody’s films too— even if I don’t like him. At all. I loved Midnight in Paris, Vicki Cristina Barcelona… But my favorite of his (yes, even more than Annie Hall, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex and Hannah and her Sisters) is Deconstructing Harry. Is it weird that I relate to that film so much? Like, being so crazy and weird and people around you not getting your craziness, but you’re still a total d-bag sometimes and you know it.

    “You know what you are? You’re a self-hating Jew.”

    “I may hate myself, but it’s not because I’m Jewish.”

    ~

    “I forgive my father! Send him to Heaven!”

    “I’m a Jew, I don’t believe in Heaven!”

    “Then where do you want to go?”

    “A Chinese Food Restaurant.”

    Those were some of the funniest moments I’ve ever experienced in a movie.

  32. bettyrose says:

    This gross troll of a man is just an insecure adolescent feeling the wounds of all the girls who rejected him before he was famous.

  33. Kelly says:

    I can’t stand his movies or him. He’s disgusting.

  34. needsmeds says:

    Ronan Farrow is an extremely impressive person. He should be celebrated in WSJ mag, not Woody.

    Agree with above statement- Woody is a creeper.

  35. NEENAZEE says:

    I sympathize with his view on aging… it happens to all of us, some of us handle it a little more (or less) gracefully than others. And it’s hard to completely overhaul your mental picture of yourself, especially if the new image isn’t something you like. But, Woody Allen in a love scene? No thanks. No one wants to see him getting frisky on the big screen… except maybe other nerdy guys so they can feel better about their own prospects. *shudder*

    • LahdidahBaby says:

      I find the very thought that he has man-parts a deeply distressing image.

  36. Jayna says:

    He’s a perv, and creeps me out. But they’ve been married forever, so whatever, I guess. He’s a weirdo, though.

    But I enjoy a good half of his movies. I didn’t really like Midnight in Paris, and was so hyped to see it because of all the great things beings said. Big disappointment. But I loved loved loved loved Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

    I do appreciate in this world of crappy, big-budget, cookie-cutter movies with actors that are only cast because they are supposedly the “it” thing right now (and most crappy, bland actors), that he still puts out little, unique movies with interesting actors. Actors in the sense of female and male.

    I actually enjoyed this interview.

  37. UsedToBeLulu says:

    It disturbs me that they have two daughters. I doubt they are safe.

  38. Ruyana says:

    I just checked. Yes, he still grosses me out.

  39. Veery Verytas says:

    When was that little nebbish ever the lover?

    • LahdidahBaby says:

      He used to cast himself as leading man in all his films. He got older and older as his leading ladies became younger and ever more pubescent. Then, somewhere in there, he began to confuse art with life.

  40. Red32 says:

    Honestly, the only Woody Allen movie I’ve ever seen was Manhattan, and I absolutely hated it. The characters were so unlikable, a bunch of self-involved twits. It was like a really long Seinfeld episode that wasn’t funny. Oh, and the main character is a middle-aged man who hooks up with a 17-year-old. This was in the 1970s. So yeah there’s a bit of a pattern with this weirdo.

  41. Kim says:

    Woodys own son testified that Woody molested his sisters. He wont even speak to him. He is a disgusting pedophile! Lock him and Roman Polanski up and throw away the key!

  42. palermo says:

    I used to love his movies, never missed one. Can’t get past his disgusting pedo behavior, and never will. After that all came out I couldn’t look at him again. Yes I too worry about his current daughters. He doesn’t seem to care that he missed out entirely on his other kids. Ronan sure dodged a bullet by looking like Mia and not this slimy little man.

  43. crtb says:

    pervert

  44. gefeylich says:

    Allen has always been delusional about his “lover” roles. He pretends that the roles he’s played are really nebbishes, but his choice of stunningly gorgeous leading ladies playing characters who fawn over and adore his characters are an indication that he sees himself as a real ladykiller.

    I’m sure he’s upset that he couldn’t credibly play the “lover” opposite his recent “muse” Scarlett Johansson (a girl young enough to be his granddaughter), but obviously someone informed him that it would be totally creepy. Good thing. And, ugh.

  45. Thora says:

    “Hollywood has “forgiven” Woody since the scandal”

    Of course it has. The place is rife with old pervs who have a penchant for slobbering all over young women.

    “If you don’t work, it’s unhealthy—for me, particularly unhealthy. I could sit here suffering from morbid introspection, ruing my mortality, being anxious. But it’s very therapeutic to get up and think, Can I get this actor; does my third act work? All these solvable problems that are delightful puzzles, as opposed to the great puzzles of life that are unsolvable, or that have very bad solutions.”

    ^This.