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Javier Bardem says Woody Allen's sexual abuse allegations are 'just gossip'

Dec 20, 2021, 23:08 IST
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Javier Bardem.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty
  • Javier Bardem called the sexual abuse allegations against Woody Allen "gossip."
  • "Pointing fingers at someone is very dangerous if it hasn't been legally proven," he added.
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Javier Bardem has dismissed the allegations against Woody Allen in which the filmmaker's adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, claimed he sexually abused her when she was a young girl. Allen has continuously denied the allegations.

"Pointing fingers at someone is very dangerous if it hasn't been legally proven," Bardem told The Guardian in a recent interview. "Beyond that, it's just gossip."

The Oscar-winning actor, who starred in Allen's 2008 movie "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," is one of the few in Hollywood to defend the director.

The abuse against Allen was first reported in 1992 by a then 7-year-old Farrow during the custody battle between Allen and his longtime girlfriend, actress Mia Farrow.

In home video footage, shown during HBO's "Allen v. Farrow" docuseries, which aired back in February, a young Farrow described how she was brought up to the attic of Farrow's Connecticut home and abused, saying on the video that Allen "touched my privates."

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Dylan Farrow.HBO

An investigation into the abuse allegations was completed in the 1990s following Allen's split with Mia Farrow, who adopted Dylan with Allen. Allen was cleared of any wrongdoing and since then has maintained his innocence.

Woody also denied the abuse allegations in a rare July 2020 interview that was shot for "CBS Sunday Morning" and was made available on Paramount Plus back in March.

"It's so preposterous and yet the smear has remained," Allen told CBS News National Correspondent Lee Cowan. "And they still prefer to cling to if not the notion that I molested Dylan, the possibility that I molested her. Nothing that I ever did with Dylan in my life could be misconstrued as that."

Javier Bardem and Woody Allen during a press conference promoting ''Vicky Cristina Barcelona' in 2008.AP Photo/Manu Fernandez

Still, several actors who have worked on Allen's movies in the past have denounced him and given their salaries to charity. Most recently, Drew Barrymore said on her show that she was "gaslit" into working with Allen on his 1996 movie "Everyone Says I Love You."

However, the "Being the Ricardos" star admitted to the Guardian that he hasn't kept track of any of that.

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"To tell you the truth, I don't follow any of that, what people said," Bardem said. "I try to go where logic dictates, which is: let's follow the rules that exist to establish whether someone is guilty or innocent."

"If the case re-opens and he is proven to be guilty, I will be the first to say: 'What a horrible thing.' But so far, I haven't seen that," he added.

This is not the first time Bardem has supported Allen.

In 2018 while attending the Lumiere Festival in France, he told the audience: "I don't agree with the public lynching that he's been receiving. And if Woody Allen called me to work with him again I'd be there tomorrow morning. He's a genius."

Other actors who have starred in Allen's movies and have since spoken out in support of the director include Alec Baldwin and Diane Keaton.

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