Allen v. Farrow (2021) s01e02 Episode Script

This is a story of two
of the biggest stars in the world.
The father is Woody Allen,
writer, director, actor.
The mother is Mia Farrow,
his frequent co-star
and the mother of his three children,
two of them adopted.
Woody and Mia
have been together for 12 years
but never married
and kept separate residences.
She reportedly has a video
of their adopted daughter Dylan
explaining how Allen
molested her.
Allen denies child abuse,
but freely admits he's in love
with another of Farrow's daughters,
21-year-old Soon-Yi.
Allen said the newest allegations
are the bizarre concoctions
of a woman scorned.
Miss Farrow's only concern
have been exclusively
the protection of her children.
ALLEN V. FARROW
Episode 2
CONNECTICUT, 1985
It's a warm day, and no one
has anything on their minds.
VOICE OF MIA FARROW
It's the sort of day when no one feels
like doing much of anything,
and everyone is pretty successful
at what they're doing.
Suddenly a sound
was heard out in the water,
and a monster
rose from the deep.
Everyone was in a panic.
Everyone ran.
The house was in pandemonium.
The baby was snatched.
They ran for cover.
But the monster steadily followed them.
Everyone in the house
was soon quite horribly dead,
and the monster was full.
I love everything
about being a mom.
And being born
into a large and growing family
made me realize I loved
being part of a large family.
Where I was one of seven siblings,
I was right in the middle.
I had wonderful parents.
My father was a filmmaker, a director,
and my mother was an actress.
My mother when she came to this
country wanted a large family
because she's from Ireland
and she missed her family.
So she wanted to make sure she had
a lot of kids so we'd have each other.
The question was asked, "Are you going
to be an actress like your mom?"
But all of actors' kids
were asked that question.
And so I always said no.
My hope was to go to medical school
and become a pediatrician.
But things happened in my life
in rapid succession.
My oldest brother died
in a plane crash when I was 13,
and it was shattering.
I noticed my father began drinking
a lot and he couldn't work anymore.
And then when I was 17 my father
died of a massive heart attack.
The family fell into a kind
of disarray that I couldn't fix.
My mom was struggling
to provide for the family,
and I felt I had to help.
Audition for Sound of Music (1964)
- Taxi, lady?
- Hi!
- Hop in!
- I've got to go to school.
I was 18
when I did the pilot for this series.
It was quite popular.
It was called "Peyton Place."
There was 60 million viewers
a week,
and I was getting a pillowcase
full of mail every day.
It became overwhelming
because people would recognize me.
So I stopped going places.
So it was at work
that I met Frank Sinatra.
He was doing a movie
on a different set.
And he had already
figured all this out,
being the most famous person.
So we were seeing each other
privately for a long time,
and it really suited both of us.
And then when Frank and I got engaged
our relationship became very public.
Excuse me, gentlemen.
Excuse me, let the lady through.
We were only married
for two years.
But I was living
in this very isolated bubble.
I think that the whole Frank Sinatra
scene kind of turned her off.
They had throngs of people
everywhere they went,
and I think it kind of scared her.
I think she liked more
to be private and with the family.
Then I got a part in a movie
that turned out to be huge
called "Rosemary's Baby."
It's alive. Guy, it's moving.
It's alive; it's all right.
Feel!
That movie gave me
a kind of credibility as an actor,
and a dream movie career was being
handed to me-respected directors,
and fascinating scripts,
and co-stars that were just legends.
THE GREAT GATSBY (1974)
But after Rosemary's baby my marriage
to Frank Sinatra had fallen apart
because I wouldn't leave the movie
when he told me to.
And I'm, like, now I don't
My marriage is over; what happens?
And then when I met and married
Andre Previn we had twins,
and I was so excited.
I wasn't just an ungrateful
TV star or movie star,
whatever I was at the time.
I was a mom.
And then I asked Andre
how he felt about adopting a child,
because during the Vietnam War
we all got pictures
not only of the war,
but of the orphans.
And so that's how we ended up with our
first adoption, our daughter Lark Song,
and then Daisy
from the same orphanage,
and both were very fragile,
both had had pneumonia.
I came pretty ill.
I was tiny, really small.
I was malnourished,
a big stomach but tiny body,
not the healthiest,
but I turned out fine.
For those children
who had been abandoned
I felt I could give them that home, and
I would love them with all my heart.
It was my way
of trying to give back,
because my childhood was interrupted
when I was nine by polio.
The pediatrician came to our house
and performed a spinal tap,
which is quite painful.
I heard in the other room
the drone of my family
praying the rosary, for me.
It was a time of polio epidemic.
I was in a pediatric ward
and iron lungs lined the hallway.
I heard people
grasping for their last breath.
And I figuring I would just die.
As I was carried out of that hospital
I asked myself what does it mean?
What do I do about that?
Other people did get paralyzed,
other people did die, and I didn't.
I can't know who I would've been
had I not had polio,
but I know that I do feel
very strongly that when possible
if you can alleviate suffering
you should try.
And then I thought it would be
wonderful to adopt an older child,
because they don't get a chance.
And so we adopted Soon-Yi.
When I went to Korea
to bring Soon-Yi home
she just didn't understand
what was happening.
Soon-Yi had a complicated relationship
with her biological mother.
She left her out on the street.
She said something like,
"We're going shopping;
back in five minutes."
She put her somewhere to wait
and she never came back.
So she had been running wild
in the streets
with a group of other kids, boys.
When I finally got her home
she was beginning to learn English.
And I thought before the memories faded
perhaps she would treasure
documenting what she could remember
of a life now far, far away.
And she referred to her mother
on those tapes as "naughty mama."
I say, "Can I give you hug like this?"
Naughty mama says, "Nope."
When I did bad
Soon-Yi didn't no eat.
It was different here.
She wasn't ready
to bond with me, you know?
So I had to work very hard
over many years.
For instance, I got a movie,
Death on the Nile,
which was made in Egypt,
and I brought Soon-Yi
because I did not want her to be
separate from me even overnight.
Because I just thought
eventually she'll understand
and I'm going to be there for her
as long as she lives.
Good mama say,
"Do you want to come to my house?"
And I said, "Yes."
Then I said,
"Good mama,
give me cuddle, give me kiss."
Don't cry!
Dylan?
Soon-Yi was always standoffish,
I think towards everybody.
I don't know if it had to do with the
fact she was adopted at a later age,
and so she remembered more
of her turmoil before she was adopted.
But she had a lot more angst it was
harder for her to trust any of us.
There were three teenage girls
in the family
and the other two probably
were a little more outgoing,
wanted to have fun, but Soon-Yi
didn't seem to be like that.
She had never dated a boy,
she never had a phone call from a boy,
she never kissed a boy.
She was very innocent.
When will they make these
with sound?
- This has sound.
- Hello everybody.
When my marriage to Andre
broke up,
Soon-Yi had only been with us
for, like, a year.
So, you know, he was very sweet
to all of the kids,
but I don't think
she ever formed a bond with him.
My mom in particular
put in a lot of effort
to maintain a positive relationship
with my dad.
He would come visit us.
He would stay at the house.
We always loved it
when he came over.
It was hurtful at first when he
fell in love with my best friend,
and I was making
a movie somewhere.
But in time I got over the tears
and Andre and I stayed best friends.
And then when I met Woody
he had just made Annie Hall.
And there was part of me
that was lonely,
and there was somebody
who said,
"I'll show you all of New York,
we'll go to movies,
and we'll go to museums and travel
to all these fascinating places."
So I stepped into his world.
The winner is
Woody Allen for Annie Hall!
Woody Allen and Mia Farrow
started dating when Woody Allen
was coming right off a hot streak
with Annie Hall.
That film was given several Oscars.
But his next film, Manhattan,
was even more well-received.
MANHATTAN (1979)
Manhattan is an interesting film
to look back at for Woody Allen.
Manhattan is a masterpiece of a film.
It's hard to watch it
and not think this is a guy
who knows how to make a movie.
It's a beautiful film.
It really captures something
about the spirit of New York.
The rhythm of it is really pleasing,
it's romantic, but it's more about loss.
It just kind of feels like
the Woody Allen movie.
When the film opens, you sit through
the opening credits and it's beautiful.
And there's Gershwin playing,
and you're seeing the skyline,
and you're being lifted
by this incredible filmmaking.
And then you come
into this restaurant
and there's these four people
sitting at a table.
Three of them are in their 40s,
and one of them is 17.
- I'm getting through to you, right?
- You'll have to excuse me.
She's gorgeous.
She's 17.
I'm 42 and she's 17.
I'm older than her father,
can you believe that?
The Woody Allen character is having
this relationship with this girl,
and his friends and he are maybe
making little jokes about it,
but acting
like it's the most normal thing.
Their relationship is depicted
as something that's real.
It might be kind of a May-December
romance perhaps,
but it's very much a relationship that's
considered to be between two adults.
You're going to sleep
in there tonight.
It's great.
The late show's a WC Fields film.
Great, we're going to watch that.
It's widely considered to be based
on a relationship
Allen allegedly had
with a high school student,
but that is not something
that he's ever acknowledged.
- So you were a secret girlfriend?
- Yes.
- And you were 16 at the time?
- I was 16 when I met him.
But I'm going to stand by that 17
we developed a relationship.
But I didn't tell him
what my age was.
It wasn't that I was, you know,
holding back anything.
He didn't ask me;
I didn't ask him.
It wasn't like it only happened once.
It went on until I was 23.
I was very much in love with him.
I thought he was magical.
After I saw "Manhattan",
and I'm the same age,
and there's Mariel looking
like myself and I thought,
oh my God, I'm his muse.
I'm an inspiration.
I even said, "Am I the mu?"
"Of course you're my muse."
I felt I was the lucky one.
That's where I was coming
from at that time of my life.
You have to understand
that where I was at that age,
I was in Seventeen Magazine,
Co-Ed Magazine,
and did all the little advertising.
I had this sex appeal
as a young girl.
And I had trauma.
I had been raped four times,
around the age of 12 to 14,
by people my family knew.
And so I start thinking
who can I trust?
And I trusted him.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong,
or good, but I had no one.
I had just me.
And there was an enchanting,
an enchantment aspect of it.
But once you realize
this is what it was,
you could've put that energy,
the same energy into yourself.
That's what I would've done.
But I had no one that I could go to.
I know it's taken a toll on me.
It's taken a toll on how I've been in
relationships - trust in relationships.
And it's made me
a super-vigilant mother.
I would not let any of my daughters
go over to an older man's home,
no matter what.
Don't you have any feelings for me?
Of course I've got nothing
but feelings for you.
But you don't want to get hung up
with one person at your age.
It's charming, you know,
and erotic, no question about that.
As long as the cops
don't burst in we're
We're going to break
a couple of records.
But you can't, it's not
It's not a good thing.
You should think of me sort
of as a detour on the highway of life.
An important move that the film makes
is to put the desire onto Tracy.
She's the one who's wanting
to keep the relationship going.
How often can you make love
in an evening? What is with you?
- A lot!
- I can tell, a lot.
A lot is my favorite number.
Gee, really, can you?
Let's do it some strange way
that you've always wanted to do
but nobody would do with you.
He gets to be the shrinking violet, and
she's the one with the serious desire.
He uses her to make
his predation okay.
You can't be in love with me;
we've been over this.
You're a kid,
you don't know what love means.
Nobody out there
knows what the hell's going on.
We have laughs together.
I care about you.
Your concerns are my concerns.
We have great sex.
I've always encouraged you to go out
with guys more your own age,
kids from your class,
and Billy, and Biff, and Scooter,
and little Tommy or Ter
Come on, don't cry.
Don't cry.
Come on, don't cry.
You get the feeling
watching Woody Allen's films
that he's trying to make us
acclimated to the idea
of these kinds of relationships,
this sort of power dynamic,
in a sense grooming us.
It's something that he does repeatedly
over and over in films.
Throughout the years,
the same archetypes show up,
the same kinds of big age
gaps in relationships show up.
And so when you see it over and over
it attunes you to thinking it is normal.
It's fine. And there's nothing
that I should feel odd about.
So what, you want to kiss?
I mean, you want a real kiss?
Yeah.
You want an actual
professional kiss, right?
Yes.
Both lips, upper and lower,
simultaneously?
I've been really thinking about it,
I've got to tell you.
Come here!
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Princeton University
has the Woody Allen archives,
which is boxes and boxes of material
that he gives to Princeton University.
It has old scripts,
ideas with notes in the margins,
multiple versions
of the same script.
So I wanted to know
if he has all these archives
of ideas that didn't get made,
that's where I think a lot of the
interesting parts of creativity are.
It's just that the thing
that kept on showing up
was this sort of focus he had
on very young women.
- How old are you, sweetie?
- Twelve.
- Twelve? Are you married?
- No.
Sometimes there's a murder
or a mystery, or something.
But it's basically always
an older guy
trying to deal with this younger woman
and him dealing with that.
Is the difference in our ages
awkward for you?
Have you ever made love
with a much older man?
Yes.
- I love you.
- I love you, too.
It was almost assembly-line,
just every single time 18-year-old,
cocktail waitress, stewardess,
cocktail waitress, cocktail waitress,
stewardess, college student.
Always a college student
at Vassar, or Smith,
or, like, a women's college.
Working drafts film script.
A rainy day in New York.
A female college student,
20 or 21
He would make a note about
the character in the character sketch.
He would say something like,
"She shouldn't be 19 or 20.
She should probably be 18,
maybe 17,
but probably 18 feels right."
And then the repetitiveness
of the attention
Sort of got
into this obsessive territory.
A flashy, sexy 16-year-old blonde
in a flaming red low cut evening gown
with a long slit up the side.
She has good legs
She has great legs
She has enormous breasts
She has long, tanned legs.
He is a wealthy,
educated, respected man,
living with a 21-year-old
Indian woman.
18-year-old woman
Two 18-year-olds.
What do you want to do tonight?
Anything! We'll go to movies,
we'll take you dancing if you want.
- Anything?
- Absolutely anything.
I know what we can do.
- Get that filthy look off your face.
- It's not filthy.
One day Woody and I
were in his apartment,
and he said, "I'm going to be making
a movie in the fall
and there's a part, and I think
you would be really right for it."
But I didn't want
to ruin the relationship
by having a boyfriend
who would be my boss.
But then I realized maybe
it was a good thing
because we were two people in love,
and we were going to work together,
and I could be an equal.
In the '80s and early '90s Woody
and Mia did 13 films together,
which is an extraordinary number
of films to make with anyone,
but especially in a period
that's about a decade long.
These films
ranged from dramas to comedies.
They're all kind of all over the map,
but they were really well-received.
So this is a big time for Woody
to be making movies.
His films are beloved of critics.
During this time, Woody Allen, Mia
Farrow, that's the ideal power couple.
They were the most beautiful,
interesting New York couple.
Mia and I we lived
in the same building in New York.
Our families were as close
as could possibly be.
And Woody gave her
everything she could possibly want.
If you'd talked to me then
I would've told you
that I'm just the luckiest person
on earth,
that I don't know what I would
have done without Woody.
Because I'm able to do these films
with him every year,
and to support my children,
and we have a wonderful life.
He's perfect for me, really.
He's solid
- He's taught me a lot.
- Like what?
- How to listen to Mozart.
- With your ears, right?
- Is that a reason to marry a
- Are you okay?
I loved Woody Allen.
Mia loved Woody Allen.
There was so much to love.
But then when Woody
revealed his essential self,
there was a change
in who he was.
After a while it didn't matter
what I was or what I thought.
I was there to serve him it felt like,
and I went into that role,
and tried to be the best version
of what he wanted,
funny but not too funny,
answer but not too talkative.
She was very frightened every time
a new movie was starting,
because she didn't know
if she could live up to his standards.
The word on the street was
she wouldn't be in the films
if she wasn't his girlfriend.
And he fed her that. He did
not do anything to dispel that.
For years he had said how lucky
I was to work with him, because,
"What's an actress your age,
you know - they're a dime a dozen.
So I can pick up the phone now,
I can replace you
in less than two minutes."
The only time I ever heard him
praise her performance
was in an interview or a piece,
where he would say,
"Mia's great in this film".
Mia's range was very flexible.
She could play the dopey
cigarette girl in Radio Days,
switch in the film to the effective
gossip columnist,
and then give the performance she does
in the film that followed, September.
- He sings your praises.
- He's probably just being polite.
Mia in Danny Rose was very different
from the usual Mia Farrow,
and she did a damn good job.
I don't want hear Lou's name.
I don't want any crap, God dammit.
Darling, sweetheart, might I interject
one notion at this juncture?
- Sweetheart, how old are you?
- None of your goddamn business.
No, serious darling!
You're upset.
- What sign are you, a Gemini?
- Will you just shut up?
NEW YORK STORIES (1989)
It was Woody's world,
and it was very controlled.
I didn't have an agent anymore
because I was with him.
I did not need an agent.
He said I could share his agent.
I didn't at that time believe
that I could get an agent,
because I was old,
I was in my 30s.
I felt he was just doing me
a giant favor, you know?
I saw him little by little
eroding her self-esteem,
eroding her sense of self.
He didn't like Mia to see her friends.
He just wanted to isolate her.
I don't know what was behind
his saying cruel things to her,
whether or not he believed it,
or whether it was just a tactic
to kick her down
so that she'd be more under his rule.
But she made up reasons
for his behavior.
She said,
"He's just in a bad mood."
There were strategies
that she used to pull herself
back into the time period
where she and Woody were happy.
Was he the ideal father?
Probably no, because he worked
so much and all of that.
But he was their father-figure.
He took the little ones shopping
and bought them
As I said, bought them airplanes
and magic tricks,
and started bringing all of them
to basketball games.
And I really encouraged him
to go with Soon-Yi, too,
because she was really shy.
For years I never gave Soon-Yi
a moment's thought.
I was too busy working.
Once or twice I remarked to Mia
how reclusive Soon-Yi seemed
and maybe she needed a shrink.
Mia said:
"Why don't you go for a walk with her
or take her to a basketball game?
You're always looking
for someone to go with."
I finally asked Soon-Yi
if she liked basketball.
She liked it well enough to say yes,
probably figuring it was free popcorn.
And so I did take her to a game.
As we chatted at the game
I found I was enjoying her company
more than I should have.
There did come a period of time
where he started
spending more time with Soon-Yi,
going out to basketball games,
meeting up after school to go to dinner
and/or hear him play
at Michael's Pub.
And that was a little unusual.
I had noticed him
being nicer to Soon-Yi, a lot nicer.
And she would be fixing her breakfast
in the morning
and we would be,
I'd be feeding all the other kids.
And she would be more chatty.
And I was just really happy because
she'd never really had a father.
Cut to sometime later.
I'm shooting Husbands and Wives,
and on a Saturday when I'm off
Soon-Yi comes in from college
and I screened
the Seventh Seal.
Bergman's film ends
and we're alone in my screening room.
And quite smoothly, if I do say so
myself, I lean in and kiss her.
She is complicit in the osculation
and to the point, as always, says,
"I was wondering
when you were going to make a move."
Make a move? Give me a break.
I'm still in some version
of a relationship with your mother.
What are we getting into?
I think Woody spent a lot of time
grooming Soon-Yi,
taking her to the Knicks games
by herself,
telling her she could be a model,
giving her a part in his film,
knowing that Soon-Yi
was the one child who didn't date,
who had never had a boyfriend, then
inviting her to the screening room,
something that he tried to do with me
and I didn't buy it, I didn't go for it.
Soon-Yi and I thought
we could have our little fling,
keep it a secret,
since Soon-Yi wasn't living at home
and I lived alone like a bachelor.
I thought it would've been
a nice experience,
and probably Soon-Yi would eventually
meet some guy at college
and enter
a more conventional relationship.
I didn't realize how attached
to one another we'd already grown.
She was a sharp, classy, fabulous
young woman, highly intelligent,
full of latent potential,
and ready to ripen superbly,
if only someone
would show her a little interest,
a little support,
and most important, some love.
The thing is I don't know
when it started with Soon-Yi.
I do know that it was while
she was at Marymount in high school.
When I went to talk
to people like doormen
and people that worked
in his house,
they said she had been coming there
for a long time.
She would come, she would be
in her school uniform at lunch,
the doorman would show her up,
the maid would change the bed
after she left.
The maid told me about
the condoms in the wastebasket
and the sheets
that needed changing
Allen claims
his relationship with Soon-Yi
began after her first semester
of college in December 1991.
Court testimony suggests their
relationship had begun years earlier.
Both Allen's doorman
and the building maintenance man
testified in court to having seen
Soon-Yi visit Allen dozens of times
during her junior
and senior years in high school.
Her high school, Marymount, was near
Woody's apartment on 5th Avenue.
Marymount is also on 5th Avenue.
Allen's housekeeper testified she found
what she believed to be semen stains
on the sheets and condom wrappers in
the wastebasket after Soon-Yi's visits,
while Soon-Yi
was still in high school.
Seven months after Soon-Yi
graduated high school,
Mia discovered the explicit photos
of Soon-Yi in Allen's apartment.
It was difficult for everybody.
Like, you know,
what do you mean?
How? When?
For how long?
All I remember
was wanting to get out of there,
not knowing what to do,
not knowing what to do
for my mom or for any of us.
I went to Connecticut
for the weekend,
Mia had a family meeting,
we were all sitting around the table,
and she gave every child
an opportunity to speak.
Soon-Yi was there,
and we all went around and said that,
"We want you in this family.
We love you,"
and she just didn't respond.
And I remember her crying
and not responding.
I tried to say to her,
"Come back,"
"Mom's willing to forgive you,"
my mom said the same thing to her,
"Things happen," "you're still
my daughter, still family,"
and she chose not to,
she obviously took the other route.
Toward the end of that first week
after me finding the pictures
I walked into her room.
And she was sitting on the floor
talking on the phone,
and I knew she was talking
to Woody the way she hung up fast.
And I just pounced on her.
And I just slapped her on the side
of her face and shoulder.
And I was just crying.
And she started crying.
And I said I was sorry,
I'm not proud of that.
I love her so much,
and I didn't ever blame her.
Because she was just a little kid
when he came into the family.
She was a little girl.
We were a family, and he was
in my home as my partner,
and as such
he had responsibilities,
You don't get to have sex
with my children;
that isn't part of the deal.
My opinion of him
changed completely.
He went from a father-figure
to a person who is a predator
that we have to keep out of the house
and protect ourselves from.
Moses particularly I think
was just absolutely devastated.
He adored Woody.
It was extremely hard for him.
So I just remember
seeing him crying often.
LETTER FROM MOSES
I just want you to know that I don't
consider you my father anymore.
It was a great feeling
having a father,
but you smashed that feeling
and dream with a single act.
I HOPE YOU ARE PROUD
TO CRUSH YOUR SON'S DREAM.
Soon-Yi went back to college
after two weeks,
and for a couple of months
Woody kept saying,
"I lost control. I'm so sorry.
It will never happen again.
I'm the safest person on earth,
now I've seen what this does."
"You can trust me."
The way he described it,
it was a thing that happened
and would never happen again.
Taped Phone Call Summer, 1992
I should not have drifted
into a relationship with Soon-Yi,
but that's the one
that I did drift into.
Okay. And then if I want
to place it somewhere
- Are you in love with Soon-Yi?
- You want to place it somewhere?
I want to understand it.
Are you in love with me
or are you in love with Soon-Yi?
Let me put it this way, you and I
have a way to go to defining
Right, okay. Because we need,
we have many steps to go.
We've destroyed
just about everything.
I called you this morning
to be reassured that I was
I wanted to try and
We were going to work together
and we were going to do our best
to try and put this all behind us
and get back on the track.
She was terribly upset.
Couldn't sleep.
She lost a lot of weight.
She became very skinny, nervous.
It's not a simple thing
of walking away and saying,
"I'll never work for you again."
They were bound up
so closely at that point.
She had exclusively made his movies
for over ten years.
So she kept going.
She kept making the movie.
Do you ever hide things from me?
Me? What kind of things?
Feelings
Longings, complaints.
No
I had to go back and finish that movie,
but I had to take a couple of weeks off.
I don't know how I did it;
I could barely look at him.
I couldn't stop shaking,
and I couldn't sleep,
and I kept having these pictures,
they just kept tearing through
the membrane of the day,
they would just tear through.
And I guess
that's the nature of trauma,
it just kind of tears through
whatever you might be doing.
You're in an odd mood tonight.
I think Jack and Sally's breakup
has definitely affected you.
You think - do you think
we'd ever break up?
What kind of question is that?
You know I'm not planning it, are you?
- No.
- Okay.
He was saying,
"We could burn those pictures
and have a new start,
and I was thinking we could
give a press conference," he said,
"because there's some
very nasty rumors about,
and that I think it's time
to refute them,
and I think we could give
a press conference together
and, you know,
say they're absolute bullshit."
What I said to you this morning, which
is a nice way to go for us to say,
we just don't comment
on these things
Or if the story is damaging or
- Of course it will be damaging.
- If it's damaging or
The truth is will be damage
The story will come out
that you had sex with one
of my teenaged children.
- I will defend myself.
- What could you possibly say?
- You'll find out.
- You can't deny it.
You'll find out.
So why did you suspect Woody
was taping your conversations?
What made you think that?
Because he put Soon-Yi on the phone,
and she lied to me about her age.
She was saying thing that both
she and I knew were not true.
Then it just occurred to me they must,
he must be taping this for some reason.
And I told Fletcher,
I told one of my other kids that,
"Woody is taping me."
He said, "Tape him right back."
And I'm, like, "Ho?"
He said, "I'll set up the phone."
I'm not going to say
that I had sex with Soon-Yi.
Are you going to call it
you had an "affair" with Soon-Yi?
- An affair with Soon-Yi?
- Certainly.
By that you're blaming Soon-Yi
for half of it.
- There's no blame to be had here.
- There certainly is!
Having sex with someone
implies something very different
I'm sorry, you told Soon-Yi before
you had sex with her
that she must understand
that this was purely for the sex,
not to be taken
in any kind of meaningful way,
and that she must be sure
to have her boyfriends at school,
and that's what you expected
would happen.
I took the kids
to the country that summer,
but Soon-Yi and I decided
it would be a lot better
if she took a job as a counselor
at this camp in Maine.
Mia had gotten Soon-Yi a job
at a camp for the summer.
But then she was almost immediately
let go from the camp
because she couldn't participate
in any camp activities
because she spent all of her time
talking to a man on the phone,
a man named "Mr. Simon."
We all knew that must
had to be Woody.
I got a call from the man
who ran the summer camp
saying that she was gone.
They said a car came,
a limousine came, and took her away.
And I kept asking Woody
where was she.
Could I talk to her?
And he wouldn't give me
any information about her at all.
Soon-Yi hated the camp
and the freezing nights in Maine.
She came back to New York,
not daring to go home,
and moved in with a friend.
And it wasn't long
before we were back together.
Once Soon-Yi disappeared
I asked if I could see his therapist,
because I didn't believe he would
be telling the therapist the truth.
I didn't believe anything anymore.
And he said, "It's okay
but I have to be in the room."
And I said, "That's fine."
And I brought the pictures,
and I gave them to his therapist.
And I said, "I don't know what to do,
because now I'm afraid.
I'm afraid for my daughter Soon-Yi,
who's my child,
and I worked so hard to build
that relationship with her."
Because she was older
when I adopted her
and bonding
didn't come naturally to her.
And I really
it meant so much to me.
And I didn't want all that broken,
so could he help me
that this wouldn't happen anymore,
and that my little daughter
would be safe,
"because I'm really worried
about that behavior, too."
He kept looking at these pictures
and I grabbed them back from him.
I said, "Why are you staring
at them that way?"
And then he said, "It's not
a therapist's job to moralize."
And I said, "Oh? Well
you have a patient
who has no moral compass,
then I guess he's lost,
because this might be a moral issue."
At some point I said,
"I need my keys to my apartment.
You can't just come in anymore."
But I also thought what do I do?
He's going to have to visit,
because he had rights
that I could never deny him
since I let him adopt Dylan.
So we laid out times when
he could come over and see her.
I didn't want to see him,
but if I said, "No, go away,"
I would have to face
some kind of vicious,
unpredictable punishment.
At one point we were all sitting
at the dinner table
and we were eating spaghetti.
And I thought I was being funny
by calling him "Woody"
instead of "Daddy."
And he was getting progressively
more agitated by it.
"No, you have to call me 'Daddy.'
Do not call me that.
Call me 'Daddy.'
Do not call me 'Woody.'"
I couldn't resist looking over one
more time and just being - "Woody."
And he grabs me
by the back of my neck
and shoves my face
down into my plate of hot spaghetti.
And that was sort of when I realized
that that's what happens if I say no.
Doing what he says
is the only way to protect myself.
It was the summer of '92.
I was hired to be their French tutor
to the two smallest kids,
Ronan and Dylan.
And I was just being there full-time
living in the house,
sharing the girls' room,
the big girls' room,
and just spending the summer
really just being there all the time.
They had already had some
big issues with Soon-Yi leaving
and all of that, so I think everyone
tried to just kind of stay calm.
That summer
we did the best that we could.
We worked out that Woody would come
once a week up to the country,
and he would see the children.
Look at that, backwards!
Very good!
August 4, 1992
It was a regular day
except that Woody was coming.
But it was just a normal day
just being outside,
and playing, and swimming.
Casey Pascal brought her kids over;
she had three small children.
Although my children were there, we
didn't know what time he was coming.
And I left my children
with my sitter, who was really good,
and the other two sitters, and we said,
"We'll just run off to the store."
We left Ronan and Dylan
with my babysitter, Kristi,
and our French teacher, Sophie.
And Casey's babysitter
was here, too, Alison.
Woody arrived
while Mia was gone.
I had been told,
"He is just too much with her
and the therapist said
not to leave them alone together."
The older kids, if he came around,
would usually avoid being there.
Moses usually went for a walk
or something.
And on that day
when we were all out,
half inside, half outside,
lots of stuff going on,
I remember Kristi, Mia's nanny,
calling out and asking,
"Have you seen Dylan?"
Testimony 1993
KRISTI GROTEKE Babysitter
I had not seen Dylan
in the past few minutes
I called Dylan's name
and I didn't hear anything
I walked across the living room
and over by the girls' room,
and I didn't see anyone
I walked back into the living room
past the TV room, into the kitchen,
and I walked to the laundry room
and I looked into the guest room,
and right next to it there
is a door to the boys bedroom,
and I didn't hear or see anything
How long a period
was Dylan absent,
that you had no knowledge
of where Dylan was, about how long?
Roughly 20 minutes.
So when Casey
and I came back from shopping,
Dylan ran up to me to hug me,
and she jumped into my arms.
And she had a little sundress on,
except she had no underpants on.
And I thought that was a little odd
but it happens,
so I asked the babysitter if she could
grab a pair of underpants, and she did.
And then I put the children to bed.
And then in the morning
we all had breakfast.
But then Casey calls
and she said her babysitter
had seen something that disturbed her,
something that upset her.
ALLISON STICKLAND
Casey's Babysitter
The next morning
I called Mia and said,
"Alison said that she saw Dylan
sitting on the couch with Woody
kneeling on the floor
with his head buried in her lap.
And she said she felt that she had
walked in on a very adult situation,
and she realized it was a child
that it was a child she was seeing.
And she was horrified to the core.
She said
Dylan was staring off into space
and Woody's face was
in her lap.
Her babysitter
had seen Woody on his knees,
in front of Dylan.
in the TV room.
And I remembered that she had
not had any underpants on.
And she was sitting right next to me,
so I just said to her,
"Did this happen? Did Daddy have
his face in your lap yesterday?"
And she said, "Yes."
And I thought,
I need to tell Dylan's therapist.
I wanted the therapist
to know what he had done.
But the therapist
was away for the summer
and that's when I realized
I had my video camera right there
and I thought,
I'll make this video.
Tell me again
what happened, okay?
Just tell me
so I've got it straight, okay?
- He took me in the attic, touched
- I'm just moving this here, just
He touched my privates.
And then he was breathing on my leg.
And then he squeezed me too hard,
that I couldn't breathe.
What do you mean he touched your
privates? Where did he touch you?
He touched you where?
Show me again.
Right there?
Okay. I'll just get the phone,
one second.
So she described that
and how she had tried to get up,
and he just kept breathing into her,
and that she didn't like it.
And then to my surprise she said,
"And then he took me into the attic."
I said, "You mean upstairs?"
And she said, "Yes, he took me
upstairs into the attic."
We were in the TV room,
and he reached behind me
and touched my butt,
and then he told me
to come up to the attic with him.
I remember
laying there on my stomach
and my back was to him
so I couldn't see what was going on.
I felt trapped.
He was saying things like,
"We're gonna go to go
to Paris together.
You're going to be
in all my movies."
And he sexually assaulted me.
And I remember just focusing
on my brother's train set.
And then he just stopped.
He was done.
And we just went downstairs.
I hoped that maybe,
my last hope was that Kristi,
who was my babysitter,
that she would say,
"Oh no, Mia.
Yes, they were in the TV room,
but then I scooped her up
and we all played outside,"
and that somehow
this wasn't true somehow.
That was my hope.
But then Kristi said,
"Oh Mia, I'm so sorry.
They got - I don't know
what happened to them.
We looked for them everywhere.
We looked in every room in the house.
We looked
everywhere for 20 minutes.
They disappeared."
And that's when I realized
that it
they had gone in the attic.
There was no other explanation.
They had been missing. It was real.
He said what?
"What about
some father-daughter time?"
He said to me
And then I said,
"Well, okay."
We went into your room,
and we went into the attic.
Then he started telling me
weird things.
Then secretly
he went into the attic,
went behind me
and touched my privates.
- Which privates did he touch?
- This part.
- He touched your front part?
- Yeah.
Over the next 2 days,
Mia videotaped Dylan whenever she
spoke about what had happened to her.
Dyl, do you wanna tell me
what things Daddy said in the attic?
When you were in the attic.
When I was in the attic,
he said,
"Do not move.
I have to do this."
But I wiggled my bum,
to see what he was doing,
he said, "Don't move,
I have to do this!
So if you stay still
then we can go to Paris."
It's really hard to believe
that somebody you respect,
and for me somebody
you really love deeply, love so much,
could be capable of doing
something so awful to a child.
It's very hard to believe,
very, very hard to believe.
But I knew one thing,
that I would need
to put away that other self,
put away that person
that was so hurt,
put away that person
that was so confused,
put away that person
that was so hopeful.
That self was gone,
and that kid who came out
of the polio wards,
just determined to walk
again and all those things,
I was that person.
I knew it would be a considerable thing,
because Woody had boundless money.
But this is your reality.
You have one job,
and that is to stand by your child
and keep her safe.
Woody Allen denies ever having been
violent or sexually abusive with Dylan.
He also denies ever having been
sexually inappropriate
with any teenaged girl.
Moses Farrow has since recanted
his letter condemning Woody Allen.