Rebecca Hall, who is known for her performances in films like ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona‘ and ‘A Rainy Day in New York‘, has spoken candidly about her 2018 apology for working with Woody Allen, the provocative filmmaker who was accused of sexual abuse by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in 2014.
While speaking to ‘The Guardian‘, she expressed regret over making a public statement denouncing her professional relationship with the writer-director. Here’s everything she has said about the apology and her political stance about things.
Rebecca Hall Says She Is Not An “Actor-vist”
Reflecting on when she chose to voice her opinion in the middle of the #MeToo era back in 2018, Rebecca Hall said that it’s not common for her to publicly express her opinions on matters that affect her. “It’s very unlike me to make a public statement about anything. I make the stuff, that’s how I am political. I don’t think of myself as an ‘actor-vist,'” she said during an interview with ‘The Guardian‘.
In January 2018, Hall apologized on Instagram for appearing in Allen’s films, saying she wouldn’t have done the same thing again and donated her salary for Allen’s ‘A Rainy Day in New York’ to the sexual harassment advocacy group Time’s Up. But now, she says the burden of deciding how to deal with such controversies should not lie with actors.
“I kind of regret making that statement because I don’t think it’s the responsibility of his actors to speak to that situation,” she said.
Rebecca Hall Prefers To Stay Out Of Politics As An Artist
The experience on set did not make things easy for Rebecca Hall, who was already emotionally conflicted. She said, “I was outside, shooting a street scene with Jude Law where, literally, my dialogue was, ‘You’ve got to stop sleeping with these (expletive) 15-year-olds,‘” Hall told the British outlet. “And that day, the Weinstein scandal breaks. There’s a bank of journalists and paparazzi right there because Weinstein’s a producer on it, and they’re all listening to me say this,” she said.
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The actress admitted her public apology ended up feeding into the narrative of actors’ condemnation of Allen, something she never intended. “In this moment, it’s the most important thing to believe the women. … So, I felt like I wanted to do something definitive,” Hall said. “But it just became, ‘another person denounces Woody Allen and regrets working with him,’ which is not what I said actually,” she added.
“I don’t regret working with him. He gave me a great job opportunity, and he was kind to me,” Hall continued. “I don’t talk to him anymore, but I don’t think that we should be the ones who are doing judge and jury on this.”
Looking back, she says she would do things differently. “I wouldn’t say anything – my policy actually is to be an artist. Don’t come out and state your stuff so much,” Hall said. “I don’t think that makes me apathetic or not engaged. I just think it’s my job,” she concluded.
