Drew Barrymore Comes Clean About Woody Allen
Drew Barrymore has had an acclaimed career that spans a number of decades. It’s fair to say, considering the age she came on to the scene, that she’s seen all the good and bad Hollywood has to offer. And that’s why it was a somewhat surprising turn of events to have her comes on today with some very specific things to say about Woody Allen and her time working with him. As reported by The Los Angeles Times from Barrymore’s television show, The Drew Barrymore Show, the actress had some regrets about working with the acclaimed director.
As part of her show on Monday, Drew Barrymore had Dylan Farrow on as a guest. Farrow is the adopted daughter of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow who was at the center of a controversy in the early 1990s. The accusation, at the time, was that Woody Allen had sexually molested Dylan when she was seven. This news came out shortly after Allen and Mia Farrow had separated. Though the accusations were made public, Allen was never convicted of any crimes for the reported incident. It’s these accusations that Drew Barrymore addressed on her show.
During the interview with Dylan Farrow, Drew Barrymore recounted her time working with Woody Allen on the musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You back in 1996. During the show, Barrymore says that at the time she was “gaslit” into working with Allen even though the accusations against him were well out in the open. In her interview with Farrow, Barrymore opens up by way of apology for the reasons she worked with Allen at the time. She starts out by offering some of the reasoning behind working with Allen at the time, explaining that in Hollywood circles at the time, this was considered a very high honor.
But then Drew Barrymore explains that she came to the realization about this later in life when she had children of her own. It’s here that she explains to Farrow that there was work within the industry at the time to ensure that only one side of the story, Allen’s, was used as context in the industry. It was in this way that everyone “okayed” the idea of working with him even though the accusations about child molestation were pretty heinous. Here’s what Barrymore had to say:
“And then I had children, and it changed me, because I realized that I was one of the people who was basically gaslit into not looking at a narrative beyond what I was being told. And I see what’s happening in the industry now, and that is because of you making that brave choice. So thank you for that.”
Dylan Farrow was clearly moved by what Drew Barrymore had to say here considering it’s one of the first times a high-profile celebrity like Barrymore has offered something in the way of a public stance on Allen and the accusations. Farrow’s appearance was in part there to discuss the HBO documentary series Allen vs.Farrow which premiered back in February. The docuseries details the accusations made at the time with follow-up interviews with family members and others. Though it’s received positive critical reviews, there are some who claim it’s a one-sided narrative of the accusations.
It will be interesting to see if Drew Barrymore commenting on the accusations around Woody Allen in such a public way leads others to do the same. Considering the status of the director in Hollywood circles, it’s always been there without being discussed all that often. This could be a springboard to more people coming out about Allen and the accusations involving Farrow.
