‘I take him as innocent’: Sean Penn defends Woody Allen, stresses sexual abuse allegations by his daughter are not true

Sean Penn wants everyone to know that he believes Woody Allen is innocent.

Penn is the odd star whose peeks into his thought process during interviews makes one understand why — despite his undeniable talent — he hasn’t been in a decent movie in over a decade. And his latest plan to get out of a mid-career slump? Work for Woody Allen.

Woody Allen hasn’t had a good run either, but unlike Penn, that’s not the only reason his work is no longer welcome in the upper echelon of Hollywood circles. He was accused by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, of sexually abusing her. Allen was eventually acquitted by a judge, whose ruling stated that while his behavior was inappropriate, there was no evidence it was sexual in nature.

All that happened in 1992, as part of Allen and Farrow’s messy breakup, which ended with the then–56-year-old director entering a relationship with Farrow’s 21-year-old adopted daughter. The story was mostly forgotten and only resurfaced in comedy clubs from time to time. In 2017, however, at the height of the MeToo movement, the public revisited the case and labeled Allen a pariah. Various stars expressed regret for working with him — including Cate Blanchett, who won her second Oscar thanks to the Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine.

Allen has since taken most of his work to Europe, with only a handful of actors willing to risk their careers to collaborate with him. And now, Sean Penn appears to be one of them. Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast, Penn said he would work with Allen again “in a heartbeat.”

Woody Allen had already worked with Penn on the 1999 drama about a jazz musician, Sweet and Lowdown, for which Penn earned his second Oscar nomination. So the loyalty there is understandable. But Theroux has a knack for gently nudging his subjects to reveal more than they probably should. When he asked Penn whether he was unbothered by the allegations, Penn responded confidently, “The stories are mostly told by people that I wouldn’t trust with a dime. It just seems so heavily weighted in that way.”

The rest of his logic is equally, deeply flawed and disturbing.

“I am not aware of any clinical psychologist or psychiatrist or anyone I’ve ever heard talk or spoken to around the subject of pedophilia that in 80 years of life, there’s accusations of it happening only once.”

Theroux then reminded him that Ronan Farrow — a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and Mia Farrow’s son — has stood by the allegations. Penn’s response? He called Farrow an “ignoramus.” It’s an odd claim, given that Farrow has spent the past a breaking some of the biggest investigative stories in modern journalism.

Sean Penn is famously litigious and allergic to criticism. He once sent an angry letter to the creators of South Park just for making fun of him, sued Lee Daniels for implying he’d been accused of domestic abuse, and has even done a few stints in jail. So when he says, “I see he’s not proven guilty, so I take him as innocent,” we kind of have to take him at his word. Penn is a man with multiple run-ins with the justice system — and clearly loves the law.

But Woody Allen is still, at best, a deeply unsettling figure. In Manhattan, he cast himself as a 42-year-old dating a 17-year-old high school student. That wasn’t fiction — it was a choice. And that’s really the heart of it.