Sorvino explained during Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast that she “should have denounced” the director over the sexual abuse allegations that Allen molested his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow. “I didn’t look deep enough to actually educate myself to really make an educated opinion at the time. It’s not an excuse,” Sorvino said, explaining that she grew up “idolizing” Allen as an artist. “It’s so hard to talk about it now because I now have a very different opinion of Woody than I did now. I blame myself for not investigating further into what happened with Dylan,” Sorvino said. “There was the whole custody battle and it was in the press. It was pre-‘Mighty Aphrodite.’ But the way that the press had kind of skewed it was that this was possibly drummed up as a reason to punish him for leaving [Mia Farrow] for [adopted daughter] Soon-Yi [Previn]. Just the fact that he was with Soon-Yi should have been enough. It should have been enough for everybody to be like, ‘Hm, daughter, what?’”
To note, Allen currently is married to former partner Mia Farrow’s other adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. Sorvino explained that the alleged incident “ruins ‘Mighty Aphrodite’ for me, ruins my Oscar performance, ruins that start of my career, because I treasured it for years and then it’s like, I should have denounced him. I should have known it then.” The “Shining Vale” star continued, “Just because he was as brilliant as he was…doesn’t mean he’s not a terrible person who hurt his daughter, who hurt a child, and there is no forgiveness for that.” Sorvino added, “I have no doubt in my mind that [Dylan] is telling the truth,” before saying she has become friends with Farrow. (In 2018, Sorvino wrote an open letter to Farrow and her mother, Mia Farrow, to apologize for “turning a blind eye” to the allegations.) The abuse allegedly took place in 1992 when Farrow was seven years old. Farrow’s allegations and subsequent legal proceedings were revisited in the HBO documentary “Allen v. Farrow,” which premiered in 2021. Allen has not been charged with any crimes since the molestation allegations. The “Manhattan” director called the claims “preposterous” in his first TV interview in nearly 30 years, telling CBS’ “Sunday Morning” in 2021 that “the smear has remained” on his name. During the “WTF” podcast, Sorvino also opened up about being blacklisted from Hollywood after turning down mega-producer Harvey Weinstein’s advances. “Mighty Aphrodite” was distributed by Weinstein’s company Miramax. “[His harassment] took away my livelihood, my ability to feed my kids, and my ability to practice what I love, to fulfill my own personal destiny,” the #MeToo activist said. Sorvino later came forward during the #MeToo movement to reveal that Weinstein sexually harassed her.
Weinstein was found guilty in 2020 of sexual assault charges and sentenced to 23 years in prison. “So much of my early career is tainted by that man [Woody Allen] and by Harvey Weinstein,” Sorvino said. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
