Dylan Farrow calls on actors who work with Woody Allen to "acknowledge their complicity"
Dylan Farrow says she's felt ignored for years after alleging her adoptive father Woody Allen sexually abused her. Allen has denied the accusations and has never been charged with a crime.
In her first TV interview about the allegations, Dylan told "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King she's speaking up again to have her voice included in the Time's Up and #MeToo conversations. Over the past two weeks, several celebrities have voiced their support for Dylan, including actress Natalie Portman.
This week, actor Timothée Chalamet announced he's donating his entire salary from his work in an upcoming Woody Allen movie to three charities that fight sexual abuse and harassment, including Time's Up. He wrote on Instagram: "I want to be worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with the brave artists who are fighting for all people to be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve."
In an interview on "CBS Sunday Morning," Portman said, "I believe Dylan. I would want to say that. I believe you, Dylan."
Dylan was visibly moved by seeing the support from Portman.
DYLAN FARROW: I'm going to start crying but, wow.
She's been searching for that acknowledgement, most of her life.
FARROW: With so much silence being broken by so many brave people against so many high profile people, I felt it was important to add my story to theirs because it's something I've struggled with for a long time and it was….It was very momentous for me to see this conversation finally carried into a public setting.
As the #MeToo movement continues, Dylan took to social media to call out celebrities who have starred in Woody Allen's films.
GAYLE KING: Are you angry with the people, with the celebrities that are starring in his movies, that hold him in high regard and continue to compliment him?
FARROW: I'm not angry with them. I hope that, you know, especially since so many of them have been vocal advocates of this Me Too and Time's Up movement that, um, they can acknowledge their complicity and maybe hold themselves accountable to how they have perpetuated this culture of – of silence in their industry.
KING: And how are they complicit?
FARROW: Because I have been saying this – I have been repeating my accusations unaltered for over 20 years and I have been systematically shut down, ignored or discredited. If they can't acknowledge the accusations of one survivor's how are they going to stand for all of us?
KING: People say it's a family matter. It was many years ago. I don't really know the details of this case.
FARROW: So find out. I mean, it's really like I said, it's so easy in this day and age. It's a family matter but here's another thing. I am a real person and I've been struggling, coping on my good days, with the aftershocks of being sexually assaulted as a small child and that's real. And that matters.
KING: How has this affected your life?
FARROW: It's affected every part of my life. You know, growing up, and like I said, I pushed it to the side, I tried to pretend or tried to convince myself that this was something moving forward that I did not need to bring with me even though it came anyway. It's impacted everything.
Married and a mother to a 16-month-old daughter, Dylan is an advocate for victims of sexual abuse.
FARROW: I have a wonderful husband and I have this amazing little girl now.
KING: So what will you tell her when the time comes? What will you tell her about how to be in this world?
FARROW: That if she was ever in a position that she's not helpless. Because one of the things that I remember very clearly as a small child is this feeling of helplessness. And if I can give her some of the tools that I didn't have then I'm hoping I will have done right by her as a parent.
Woody Allen's written response to "CBS This Morning":
"When this claim was first made more than 25 years ago, it was thoroughly investigated by both the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital and New York State Child Welfare. They both did so for many months and independently concluded that no molestation had ever taken place. Instead, they found it likely a vulnerable child had been coached to tell the story by her angry mother during a contentious breakup.
Dylan's older brother Moses has said that he witnessed their mother doing exactly that – relentlessly coaching Dylan, trying to drum into her that her father was a dangerous sexual predator. It seems to have worked – and, sadly, I'm sure Dylan truly believes what she says.
But even though the Farrow family is cynically using the opportunity afforded by the Time's Up movement to repeat this discredited allegation, that doesn't make it any more true today than it was in the past. I never molested my daughter – as all investigations concluded a quarter of a century ago."
