"I love Woody": Scarlet Johansson says she believes Woody Allen and "would work with him anytime"
Scarlet Johansson is speaking up in support of filmmaker Woody Allen a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Johansson is standing by Allen despite allegations of sexual assault against him, which have led some actors to say they won't work with him anymore.
When asked how she feels about Allen, Johansson, who has worked with the director on several movies, including "Scoop" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," replied, "I love Woody." She told The Hollywood Reporter, "I believe him, and I would work with him anytime."
Allen has been accused of sexual abuse by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.
Farrow claims she told her mother, Mia Farrow, that Allen molested her when she was 7 years old. Mia Farrow has stood by her daughter, who spoke about Allen for the first time on television in a 2018 "CBS This Morning" interview.
Dylan Farrow took to social media to call out celebrities who have starred in Allen's films. She told "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King she's not angry with those people, but she hopes that "especially since so many of them have been vocal advocates of this Me Too and Time's Up movement that they can acknowledge their complicity and maybe hold themselves accountable to how they have perpetuated this culture of — of silence in their industry."
Allen has always denied Farrow's allegations and he was never prosecuted. Farrow says her accusations have been "unaltered for over 20 years and I have been systematically shut down, ignored or discredited."
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, a number of actors have said they regret working with Allen. Johansson, however, is standing by her friend.
"I see Woody whenever I can, and I have had a lot of conversations with him about it," Johansson told The Hollywood Reporter. "I have been very direct with him, and he's very direct with me. He maintains his innocence, and I believe him."
Johansson said holding this opinion of Allen is hard "because it's a time where people are very fired up, and understandably."
"Things needed to be stirred up, and so people have a lot of passion and a lot of strong feelings and are angry, and rightfully so. It's an intense time," she said.
Johansson was one of the first actresses to get involved in the "Time's Up" movement, and during a fiery speech at the 2018 Women's March on Washington, she called out James Franco for wearing a Time's Up pin to the Golden Globes. Franco was later accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, which he denied.
While Johansson has been very vocal about women's rights and other political issues, it appears she won't be joining Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Hall, Mira Sorvino, Ellen Page, David Krumholtz and Griffith Newman in expressing regret or guilt for having worked with Allen.
Allen's next film, "A Rainy Day in New York," is due out this year — but it will not be released in the United States, according to Variety. Several of the film's stars are in the group who renounced Allen, and some, including Chalamet and Selena Gomez, decided to donate their salaries from the movie to the "Time's Up" movement or other charities.
