Javier Bardem has spoken out in support of Hollywood legend, saying that Woody Allen is genius, and none has any right to lynch the director until his guilt is proven by the trial, Variety reported on Friday.
The Spanish actor has a great respect for Woody Allen who directed him and his then-soon-to-be wife Penélope Cruz in the 2008 comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona. In fact, on the set of that comedy, both Spanish actors understood they are in love. On Monday, during the masterclass at France’s Lumière Film Festival, Javier called Allen “a genius,” saying he’d “work with him tomorrow,” despite the rumours.
“At the time I did Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the allegations were already well known for more than 10 years, and two states in the US deemed he was not guilty,” Bardem said.
He added that the legal moment is very important, and if the legal situation ever changes, then he’d change my mind.
“But for now 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.”
Hollywood people believe Bardem’s attitude contrasts strongly with a number of his high-profile colleagues. Not so long time ago, Colin Firth and Timothée Chalamet have expressed their vision of Woody Allen’s rumoured behaviour. According to Greta Gerwig, she deeply regrets working with an American director and won’t do so again. She said so because of a newspaper article in 2013 by Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow in which she repeated accusations of child sexual abuse by her father, alleged to have taken place in 1992.
Mr Allen denies all the allegations, while the investigation by the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut concluded in 1993 that no abuse had taken place, and New York state’s Department of Social Services cleared Allen later the same year following a child welfare investigation.
Despite the rumours and opinions of Hollywood society, Woody Allen intends to keep working. According to Page Six, Allen concluded: “I’m a writer. It’s what I am. What I do. What I always will be. I’ll write. Since I continually have ideas it’ll be new ideas and I’ll write new things.”
Allen’s most recent film, A Rainy Day in New York with Timothée Chalamet, still hasn’t a release date.
