Actress Karen Allen addresses her character's underage relationship with Indiana Jones: 'I don't think of him as a pedophile'

• It's implied that Marion was a minor when Indiana Jones had a relationship with her.
• Allen, who plays Marion in the franchise, believes she was 16 when they had their first fling.
• "I don't think of him as a pedophile," Allen told Uproxx.

In recent years, a specific scene from the 1981 classic "Raiders of the Lost Ark," which birthed Harrison Ford as globe-trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones, has come under scrutiny due to the age difference between Dr. Jones and Marion Ravenwood (played by Karen Allen), his love interest in the movie.

When Jones sets out to find the Ark of the Covenant, he must first find a medallion that tells him where the Ark is buried. Marion has it, and in their first conversation together, after years of not seeing each other, Marion confronts Jones about their past fling saying, "I was a child. I was in love." In which Jones responds: "You knew what you were doing."

Things are left there and never addressed again.

However, in the last few years transcripts of the story conferences between director Steven Spielberg, George Lucas (who came up with the Indiana Jones story), and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, have spread on social media and revealed there was talk of the two characters having a major age gap that could have had Jones in a relationship with Marion when she was a minor.

-Men Write Women (@menwritewomen) July 28, 2020

In an interview with Uproxx celebrating the movie's 40th anniversary 4k Blu-ray release, Allen gave her take on the relationship.

"I think I say I was 16. I don't know," Allen said. "That's always what I imagined is she was 16, he was 26. And he was her father's student. And it's left very mysterious."

"We don't even know what it is," Allen continued. "I mean, they could have kissed a few times, and she was just completely bowled over, and he could have just not wanted to get involved with someone so young. And maybe my father would have been furious at him. I mean, what's great about it is we don't know what the circumstances are."

The way Allen sees it, it was all very innocent in those early days between Marion and Indy.

"I don't think of him as a pedophile," Allen said. "That's the direction some of these people are going."

After not appearing in the two Indiana Jones movies following "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Allen's Marion character returned in 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

A fifth Jones movie is currently in production.