Scroll To Top
Arts & Entertainment

9 Actors Who Regret Working With Woody Allen

Woody Allen Regrets

Some of the actors, like Rebecca Hall and Timothee Chalamet, donated their salary from working with Allen to charities that work with harassment and abuse survivors. 

Since the reckoning around sexual predation began felling big-time Hollywood types like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Brett Ratner last October, there have been a handful of artists so sought-after to work alongside that their sexual misconduct was largely ignored. Now, 26 years after Woody Allen and Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Dylan Farrow first accused Allen of molesting her in an attic crawlspace and four years after she penned a New York Timesarticle detailing the alleged abuse, celebrities have finally begun to distance themselves from and express regret for having worked with the prolific director of American classics like Annie Hall.

More importantly, in the time of #MeToo and "Time's Up" movements that seek to offer solidarity with survivors of harassment and abuse and to expose and prosecute predators when applicable, Dylan Farrow, who is now 32, finally has a voice, and she is being believed.

This week, in her first television interview about the abuse, Dylan Farrow told CBS This Morning'sGayle King, "I want to show my face and tell my story. I want to speak out, literally."

Following the Golden Globe Awards ceremony in early January when celebrities wore black and sported "Time's Up" pins in solidarity with survivors of sexual abuse, Dylan Farrow called out stars like Justin Timberlake and Blake Lively for speaking out against harassment and abuse while failing to acknowledge their complicity in working with accused predator Allen.

But the tide has turned and a few celebrities have made it a point to validate Dylan Farrow's experience, like Natalie Portman, who pointedly said, "I believe you, Dylan," and Reese Witherspoon, who concurred with Portman.

Meanwhile, others who've worked with Allen since Dylan Farrow wrote her New York Times piece four years ago have expressed regret, with a few promising to donate their salaries from working with him to charity. Here's a running list of celebrities who worked with Allen who have now publicly rebuked him.

01-ellen-page

Ellen Page

Out actress Page costarred in Allen's 2012 film To Rome With Love, an homage to Giovanni Boccaccio's sex farce The Decameron. In a moving Facebook post in which she recalled the details of working with Ratner on X-Men: The Last Stand, during which he tried to humiliate and out her, she became one of the first actors to express regret for having worked with Allen.

"I did a Woody Allen movie and it is the biggest regret of my career. I am ashamed I did this. I had yet to find my voice and was not who I am now and felt pressured, because 'of course you have to say yes to this Woody Allen film.'" Page wrote. "Ultimately, however, it is my choice what films I decide to do and I made the wrong choice. I made an awful mistake."

02-timothee-chalomet

Timothee Chalamet

The 22-year-old Golden Globe-nominated Call Me by Your Name, star who worked on Allen's upcoming film A Rainy Day in New York, announced in an Instagram post that he would donate his salary from the film to Time's Up, the LGBT Community Center in New York, and the anti-sexual violence organization RAINN (the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network).

"I am learning that a good role isn't the only criteria for accepting a job -- that has become much clearer to me in the past few months, having witnessed the birth of a powerful movement intent on ending injustice, inequality, and above all, silence," Chalamet wrote.

"I don't want to profit from my work on the film," Chalamet added.

03-rachel-brosnahan

Rachel Brosnahan

A Golden Globe winner for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Brosnahan, 27, expressed regret for signing on to working with Allen on his 2016 Amazon mini-series A Crisis in Six Scenes.

"Look, I had a great experience working on that project," Brosnahan said on a podcast with The Hollywood Reporter. "But I do have to take this opportunity to say that, for me, I have really struggled with the decision to do that project for a long time."

Brosnahan, who previously starred in House of Cards and Manhattan, added, "Honestly, it's the decision that I have made in my life that is the most inconsistent with everything I stand for and believe in, both publicly and privately. And while I can't take it back, it's important to me, moving forward, to make decisions that better reflect the things that I value and my worldview."

04-greta-gerwig

Greta Gerwig

Writer and director of the acclaimed film Lady Bird, Gerwig, also worked with Allen on To Rome With Love. Following her Golden Globes win earlier this month she stumbled during a backstage interview when asked about working with Allen but clarified her position the following day.

"I can only speak for myself and what I've come to is this: If I had known then what I know now, I would not have acted in the film," she said. "I have not worked for him again, and I will not work for him again. I grew up on his movies, and they have informed me as an artist, and I cannot change that fact now, but I can make different decisions moving forward."

05-recca-hall

Rebecca Hall

A two-time alumna of Allen films, Hall caught one of her first big breaks in Allen's 2008 continental romp Vicky Cristina Barcelona and recently starred in A Rainy Day in New York. The star of Professor Marston and the Wonder Women wrote in an Instagram post that she was on the set of the Allen film in October the day the story about Harvey Weinstein's serial predation broke, which led her to consider her decision to work with Allen.

"After reading and re-reading Dylan Farrow's statements of a few days ago and going back and reading the older ones -- I see, not only how complicated this matter is, but that my actions have made another woman feel silenced and dismissed," Hall wrote. That is not something that sits easily with me in the current or indeed any moment, and I am profoundly sorry. I regret this decision and wouldn't make the same one today. It's a small gesture and not one intended as close to compensation but I've donated my wage to Time's Up."

The actress also vowed to continue to donate to the organization.

06-mira-sorvino_1

Mira Sorvino

When the dam broke about Harvey Weinstein's history of sexually abusing women, Sorvino, whose career was on the rise in the mid to late '90s, shared her story of harassment at the hands of the powerful producer with Dylan Farrow's brother Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker. Subsequently, it was confirmed that Weinstein had blacklisted Sorvino at the height of her career after she won an Oscar for her role in Allen's 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite.

Earlier this month Sorvino wrote an open letter to Farrow for HuffPost in which she apologized and expressed regret for working with Allen.

"I confess that at the time I worked for Woody Allen I was a naive young actress," Sorvino wrote. "I swallowed the media's portrayal of your abuse allegations against your father as an outgrowth of a twisted custody battle between Mia Farrow and him, and did not look further into the situation, for which I am terribly sorry. For this I also owe an apology to Mia."

Sorvino then addressed resisting the urge to separate the art from the artist.

"We are in a day and age when everything must be re-examined. This kind of abuse cannot be allowed to continue. If this means tearing down all the old gods, so be it," she wrote. "The cognitive dissonance, the denial and cowardice that spare us painful truths and prevent us from acting in defense of innocent victims while allowing "beloved" individuals to continue their heinous behavior must be jettisoned from the bottom of our souls."

07-griffin-newman

Griffin Newman

Star of Amazon's The Tick, Newman expressed regret in a series of tweets in October for having signed on to Allen's A Rainy Day in New York. The actor, who was one of the first to speak out against working with Allen vowed to donate his salary to RAINN.

"I need to get this off my chest. I worked on Woody Allen's next movie. I believe he is guilty. I donated by entire salary to RAINN," Newman wrote. "It's a one scene role. I spent a month debating whether or not to quit. I deeply regret my final decision."

The young actor added, "It was an educational experience for all the wrong reasons. I learned conclusively that I cannot put my career over my morals again."

08-david-krumholtz

David Krumholtz

Veteran actor David Krumholtz (The Closer, Numb3rs, The Deuce) worked with Allen on Wonder Wheel, which was released late in 2017 and met with poor box office receipts. He tweeted his regret for working with the director in early January.

"I deeply regret working with Woody Allen on Wonder Wheel. It's one of my most heartbreaking mistakes," Krumholtz wrote. "We can no longer let these men represent us in entertainment, politics, or any other realm. They are beneath real men."

Colin_firthx750

Colin Firth

Star of The King's Speech and A Single Man, Colin Firth, who appeared in Allen's 2014 film Magic in the Moonlight, is the most recent star to rebuke Allen. He didn't go into great detail, but he told The Guardian, "I wouldn't work with him again."

Advocate Channel - The Pride StoreOut / Advocate Magazine - Fellow Travelers & Jamie Lee Curtis

From our Sponsors

Most Popular

Latest Stories

Tracy E. Gilchrist