Lady Bird writer/director Greta Gerwig was in Woody Allen’s 2012 film, To Rome With Love. She also wore all black to Sunday’s Golden Globes, because protecting women from sexual predators was an important fashion statement that night. So naturally, after she accepted the Best Picture – Musical or Comedy award, she was asked if she regretted working with Allen. Gerwig responded with “WELL MAN LEMME TELL YA” then jumped through a wall like a cartoon character and ran away. Since then, she must have read the ONLINE BACKLASH so in an interview with The New York Times yesterday, she finally found the strength to speak up.
I would like to speak specifically to the Woody Allen question, which I have been asked about a couple of times recently, as I worked for him on a film that came out in 2012. It is something that I take very seriously and have been thinking deeply about, and it has taken me time to gather my thoughts and say what I mean to say. I can only speak for myself and what I’ve come to is this: If I had known then what I know now, I would not have acted in the film. I have not worked for him again, and I will not work for him again. Dylan Farrow’s two different pieces made me realize that I increased another woman’s pain, and I was heartbroken by that realization. I grew up on his movies, and they have informed me as an artist, and I cannot change that fact now, but I can make different decisions moving forward.
I totally understand Gerwig here. If Gerwig had known what Woody had done in the 90s, she never would have agreed to work with her idol in 2012 even though what Woody Allen did in the 90s was common knowledge and easily available on the Internet prior to her agreeing to being in the film. She was 29 in 2012, so she probably didn’t know how to do a Google Search. I’m sure she does now, so maybe today she can look up “classic white woman victimhood”.
