Dylan Farrow gives first TV interview about alleged Woody Allen sexual abuse

NOTE: This article contains disturbing and sexually explicit language. Please read at your own discretion.

Dylan Farrow described in detail Woody Allen’s alleged sexual assault of her and called actors who work in Allen’s films “complicit” in perpetuating a “culture of silence.”

In her first televised interview, Farrow, the adopted daughter of Allen and Mia Farrow, claimed that he molested her at their family’s home in Connecticut when she was seven years old.

“I was taken to a small attic crawl space in my mother’s country house in Connecticut by my father. He instructed me to lay down on my stomach and play with my brother’s toy train that was set up,” she said during the taped interview Thursday on CBS This Morning. 

READ MORE: Timothée Chalamet, Golden Globe nominee, donates Woody Allen movie salary to Time’s Up

Farrow continued:  “And he sat behind me in the doorway, and as I played with the toy train, I was sexually assaulted. As a 7 year old I would say, I would have said he touched my private parts.”

“As a 32 year old, he touched my labia and my vulva with his finger,” she said.

Allen was investigated but wasn’t charged, and he has long denied inappropriately touching Farrow. He has accused Dylan’s mother and his ex-wife, Mia Farrow, of brainwashing their daughter into believing she was molested.

Farrow called Allen’s version of events, that a distraught Mia Farrow coached her story, “crazy.”

READ MORE: Alec Baldwin defends Woody Allen as other celebrities denounce him

“What I don’t understand is how is this crazy story of me being brainwashed and coached more believable than what I’m saying about being sexually assaulted by my father?” Farrow said in response on CBS This Morning.

While speaking with Gayle King, Farrow was visibly emotional after watching a clip from 60 Minutes in which Allen denies the allegations.

“He’s lying and he’s been lying for so long,” she said. “And it is difficult for me to see him and to hear his voice. I’m sorry.”

Farrow went on to claim that the alleged incident wasn’t the only time Allen’s behaviour toward her was inappropriate.

“He would follow me around. He was always touching me, cuddling me and if I ever said, ‘You know, like, I want to go off by myself,’ he wouldn’t let me,” she said. “He often asked me to get into bed with him when he had only his underwear on and sometimes when only I had my underwear on.”

READ MORE: Woody Allen responds to Dylan Farrow’s molestation claim

“Why shouldn’t I want to bring him down?” she said in response to a question. “Why shouldn’t I be angry? Why shouldn’t I be hurt? Why shouldn’t I feel some sort of outrage … after all these years, being ignored and disbelieved, and tossed aside?”

Asked why she hopes people will believe her now, she replied, “I suppose that’s on them. All I can do is speak my truth.”

During the interview, Farrow also addressed the fact that Allen has had a successful career in Hollywood and worked with many A-list stars despite the accusations against him.

“I’ve been saying this, I’ve been repeating my accusations unaltered for over 20 years,” Farrow said. “I have been systematically shut down, ignored or discredited. If they can’t acknowledge the accusations of one survivor, how are they going to stand for all of us?”

READ MORE: Ellen Pompeo slams Woody Allen on Twitter for reported ‘obsession’ with teenage girls

In a statement Thursday, Allen reiterated his denial.

“When this claim was first made more than 25 years ago, it was thoroughly investigated by both the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital and New York State Child Welfare,” read the statement, which was released when Farrow’s full interview aired. “They both did so for many months and independently concluded that no molestation had ever taken place. Instead, they found it likely a vulnerable child had been coached to tell the story by her angry mother during a contentious breakup.”

“Dylan’s older brother Moses has said that he witnessed their mother doing exactly that – relentlessly coaching Dylan, trying to drum into her that her father was a dangerous sexual predator,” Allen said in the statement. “It seems to have worked – and, sadly, I’m sure Dylan truly believes what she says. But even though the Farrow family is cynically using the opportunity afforded by the Time’s Up movement to repeat this discredited allegation.”

The 82-year-old filmmaker’s statement added: “That doesn’t make it any more true today than it was in the past. I never molested my daughter — as all investigations concluded a quarter of a century ago.”

READ MORE: Woody Allen thinks it’s still acceptable to wink at women in the office

A growing number of actors are distancing themselves from Allen and his next film, heightening questions about the future of the prolific filmmaker in a Hollywood newly sensitive to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Timothée Chalamet said on Tuesday that he will donate his salary from an upcoming Allen film to three charities fighting sexual harassment and abuse: Time’s Up, the LGBT Center in New York, and RAINN.

In recent weeks, Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite), Ellen Page (To Rome With Love), David Krumholtz (Wonder Wheel) and Griffith Newman have all in some way distanced themselves from Allen or vowed that they wouldn’t work with him again.

Some have continued to support Allen, though, including Alec Baldwin.

“Woody Allen was investigated forensically by two states (NY and CT) and no charges were filed,” Baldwin said Tuesday on Twitter. “The renunciation of him and his work, no doubt, has some purpose. But it’s unfair and sad to me. I worked with Woody Allen three times and it was one of the privileges of my career.”

Watch a clip from Farrow’s CBS This Morning interview in the video above.

If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or is involved in an abusive situation, please visit the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for help. They are also reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.

—With files from the Associated Press