Allen v. Farrow filmmakers say Woody Allen is "welcome to do an interview" with them anytime
Ahead of last night’s airing of the fourth and final (more on that in a moment) episode of Allen v. Farrow, directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, along with lead reporter Amy Herdy, spoke at length with THR about the series, which re-examines Dylan Farrow’s sexual abuse allegations against her former adopted father, Woody Allen, in harrowing detail. Allen recently issued a statement about the series through a spokesperson, calling Allen v. Farrow a “hatchet job,” and claimed that he was given just “days” to respond to an interview request that was made two months before Allen v. Farrow premiered. In response, Ziering refuted the idea that Allen’s voice was not heard, and extended an open invitation should Allen actually want to be interviewed, adding that HBO would probably do another episode of the series:
His perspective, his first-person testimony is included throughout the series. We have his own voice reading, his own writing, his press conferences in his words, his court testimony. His side is represented. And he’s welcome to do an interview [with us]. Standing offer. We’re sure that HBO would do a fifth episode. We’re here.
Herdy additionally rejects Allen’s claim that he wasn’t given adequate time to respond to interview requests, revealing that she actually reached out to his publicist twice in 2018 following a widely-publicized interview in which Allen called himself the “poster boy” for the #MeToo movement. Says Herdy: “And I know that they got my request because I spoke to an assistant, who confirmed that they got my request. They never responded. And so I continued to do a deep dive.”
The result of that work is a wrenching series that gives Dylan Farrow a platform to tell her story in full—something she had avoided sharing in depth, even with loved ones, until recently: “Growing up, I never spoke about it with any of my siblings. None of them asked,” says Farrow of the abuse and subsequent investigations she endured as a seven-year-old child. “They all went through their own gauntlet of emotions over this. I didn’t even speak about it in any depth with my mom. Even with my therapist.” The documentary features interviews with several of her siblings, including Fletcher Previn and Ronan Farrow (who admits that he once had “knock-down, drag-out fights” with his sister when she expressed the desire to go public with her story), as well as their mother, Mia Farrow. In addition to the alleged abuse of Dylan, Farrow had to contend with Allen’s lawyers and a child custody battle following their split; Allen, who continues to deny having abused Dylan, was caught having an affair with Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, and the pair subsequently married.