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'Why Shouldn't I Want To Bring Him Down?' Dylan Farrow Speaks Out About Woody Allen

In her first-ever TV interview, Farrow opened up about her claim that her father sexually abused her when she was a child.
Dylan Farrow interview CBS woody allen Dylan Farrow gave her first ever TV interview this week, sitting down with CBS's Gayle King. Photo, CBS.

This morning, Dylan Farrow gave her first ever televised interview, talking to CBS’s Gayle King about her allegation of sexual assault against her father, Woody Allen. It’s not the first time the now-32-year-old has shared her story — in 2014, she wrote an open letter for the New York Times detailing the incident she says occurred when she was seven. And just last month, she wrote a piece for the L.A. Times questioning why the #MeToo movement had spared Allen. Now, Farrow she says that same movement has emboldened her to speak out again.

Here, the revelations from her interview, what she thinks about the celebrities who are supporting her, and why she’s not angry (not really) at the ones who aren’t.

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On why she’s speaking up

“I want to show my face and tell my story … I want to speak out. Literally,” Farrow told King at the start of the 11-minute interview. Later, she explained how the #MeToo movement has emboldened her: “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.”

On why she’s mad as hell (and why that’s okay)

The standout line came after King told Farrow that some people are saying she just wants to bring Allen down. “Why shouldn’t I want to bring him down?” Farrow responded — a battle cry for all assault survivors. She continued: “Why shouldn't I be angry? Why shouldn't I be hurt? Why shouldn't I feel some sort of outrage that after all these years [of] being ignored and disbelieved, and tossed aside?"


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On using grownup words

In another powerful moment, Farrow made the distinction between how she recounted her experience as a child versus how she describes it now: “As a seven-year-old I would say, I would have said he touched my private parts.… As a 32-year-old, he touched my labia and my vulva with his finger.”

On watching her father deny the charges

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At one point during the interview, King pulled out an iPad and played a clip from a 60 Minutes interview with Woody Allen from 1992. In the clip, Allen vehemently denies Farrow’s allegation. (He continues to deny his daughter’s allegation.) While watching the footage, Farrow began to cry. “I’m sorry … I thought I could handle it,” she said. “He's lying and he's been lying for so long. And it is difficult for me to see him and to hear his voice.”

On believing accusers

King pointed out that some people believe Allen’s version of events. (Mia Farrow was in the middle of a vicious custody battle with Allen at the time of the alleged assault. Farrow and Allen split after she found out he was having an affair with her 21-year-old daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, who is now Allen's wife.) Dylan denied the brainwashing rumours and questioned why people aren’t inclined to believe a credible adult: “What I don't understand is how is this crazy story of me being brainwashed and coached more believable than what I'm saying about being sexually assaulted by my father.”

On getting support from high-power celebrities

Farrow teared up again when King played a clip from a recent interview with Natalie Portman, who responded to a question about #TimesUp and Woody Allen by saying, “I believe you, Dylan. I believe you.” Portman is one of a growing list of celebs who are voicing their support for Dylan and (in some cases) their regret for working with Allen: Mira Sorvino, Greta Gerwig, Rebecca Hall, Timothée Chamalet and Ellen Page, who wrote on Facebook that working on Allen’s 2012 movie To Rome With Love is “the biggest regret of my career.”


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On the celebrities who continue to support Allen

“Are you angry?” King asked Farrow on the topic of the celebs who support Allen and continue to act in his movies. (Farrow recently called out Blake Lively and Justin Timberlake for what she sees as the hypocrisy of supporting #MeToo while starring in Woody Allen movies.)

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Farrow said she isn’t angry, but she hopes that these people “can acknowledge their complicity and maybe hold themselves accountable to how they have perpetuated this culture of — of silence in their industry.”

On why we should believe her

“I am credible," said Farrow, "and I am telling the truth.”

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