What Blake Lively Said About Woody Allen and Why It’s Concerning

4 days ago 14

Although she has earned a lot of acclamation for her onscreen performances, Blake Lively might as well be deemed nothing short of one of the most controversial figures in all of Hollywood’s entertainment industry as well. Be it for her backlash-inducing decisions like her plantation wedding or simply her arguable comments, she perfectly steals the spotlight every now and then.

That said, Lively isn’t all that choosy with her words and behavior either. To say the least, she is as straightforward as she is bold, and as unhesitant to speak her mind out as ever. As appreciable as this trait of hers is, it is also the very feature that often tends to leave her in a contentious position among fans, especially with the statements she makes and stands her ground on.

One of these very comments included her putting in some really good words for filmmaker cum actor cum comedian Woody Allen back in 2016, who himself has found himself to be the epitome of criticism and backlash over his alleged s-xual abuse of his stepdaughter. While Lively’s statements empowered Allen, they weren’t all that empowering for victims of s-xual abuse out there.

With that being acknowledged, it’s important to shed light on what exactly Blake Lively said about Allen back then that not only turned out to be scrutiny-gaining praise for him but was even concerning enough for reasons all too understandable. Thus, here’s what Lively had to say about Woody Allen, and just how much criticism she has faced in return.

Blake Lively called Woody Allen “empowering” to work with

While she is currently raging in the limelight over the lawsuit she has filed against co-star Justin Baldoni, this isn’t the only time Lively has done something controversial to earn her a place in the limelight. Back in 2016, she got under tremendous scrutiny for going ahead to claim Woody Allen was “empowering” to work with after working with him on Café Society.

In an interview with Hampton’s Magazine, she came candidly clean about her opinions on the Annie Hall filmmaker as she claimed,

[Allen] creates a very pleasant set where everybody’s just happy to be there and happy to be making a movie, & happy to be a part of film history. For him to have that confidence in you almost gives you the confidence in yourself to just go with the flow.

That’s not all. Following this, Blake Lively proceeded to praise Allen over how reportedly “encouraging” he was while she joined him onboard for the 2016 comedy-romance flick. She admitted out loud during the same interview, “He also is really encouraging as to why he cast you. He’ll say, ‘Say the dialogue that’s written, and then you can improvise for a while.’”

“His dialogue is so specific, and it’s speaking in a 1930s dialect and [with period] references, so it’s intimidating to think, Oh, let me just improvise there and hope that my words blend seamlessly alongside Woody Allen’s,” The Gossip Girl actress said, continuing to gush on and on in praise of the director. “Which they clearly wouldn’t and don’t. But he’s very empowering.”

If all of that praise wasn’t enough, Lively even went on to say,

It’s really cool to work with a director who’s done so much, because he knows exactly what he wants. The fact that he does one shot for an entire scene — [and] this could be a scene with eight people and one to two takes — it gives you a level of confidence because when he’s got it, he knows he’s got it.

That being said, it’s only inevitable that the It Ends with Us actress actually holds the filmmaker in high regard. But as much as this praise was one thing, it isn’t all.

Woody Allen was alleged of s-xually abusing his stepdaughter

As much as Woody Allen is famous for all his contributions to Hollywood’s entertainment industry through the likes of critically commended projects like Annie Hall (1977), Midnight in Paris (2011), and Coup de chance (2023), he is also rather infamous for the s*xual abuse allegations against him. What made the matters worse was that these accusations were from his ex-partner.

Back in late 1992, Allen was accused by his former partner cum actress Mia Farrow of having allegedly s-xually molested their adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow, then aged 7, in Mia Farrow’s home in Bridgewater, Connecticut (via Vanity Fair). This prodded a 6-month investigation by the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of Yale-New Haven Hospital in March 1993, resulting in the conclusion that Dylan had, in fact, not been s-xually abused (via The New York Times).

Decades later, in 2014, Dylan had excerpts from her open letter published in the New York Times, restating the allegation against Allen. In response, Allen released an open letter of his own to the New York Times which had him strongly denying the allegations against himself imposed by his stepdaughter.

If that wasn’t enough, what further marred the Manhattan director’s reputation was the fact that he shared a s-xual relationship with one of his adoptive daughters, Soon-Yi Previn, who even married him in 1997 when she was still in her early 20s and is currently his wife (via The Nation).

Filmmaker Woody Allen with his wife Soon-Yi Previn.

Talking to the Los Angeles Times in 2016, the Green Lantern actress complimented the filmmaker, saying, “It’s amazing what Woody has written for women.” When asked to shed light on these allegations against Allen, her response was:

It’s very dangerous to factor in things you don’t know anything about. I could [only] know my experience. And my experience with Woody is he’s empowering to women.

These comments of evident defense of Woody Allen further earned Blake Lively quite a bit of backlash and controversy from fans worldwide. But as much as these comments are deemed criticism-probing from fans, these are also concerning, for reasons all too understandable.

Why Blake Lively’s comments on Woody Allen are concerning

Of course, Allen doesn’t hold that respectable of a position in Hollywood’s entertainment industry due to these very allegations against him, even though he has maintained his not-guilty status and his works have pretty much established him as one of the most legendary filmmakers of all time. This is why Lively’s statements in his defense are rather concerning.

For one, Blake Lively got a lot of objection from fans worldwide when she commented in favor of the director. This included even Ronan Farrow, brother of the alleged victim Dylan Farrow, who wrote a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter in support of his sister.

Talking about actors like Lively who worked with Allen despite his controversy, he wrote:

That kind of silence isn’t just wrong. It’s dangerous. It sends a message to victims that it’s not worth the anguish of coming forward. It sends a message about who we are as a society, what we’ll overlook, who we’ll ignore, who matters, and who doesn’t.

Needless to say, Ronan isn’t wrong either. If anything, his comment about this deafening silence from all those celebrities out there coupled with Blake Lively’s words of praise for Woody Allen most certainly are concerning as they hint at their support toward the filmmaker instead of the alleged victim. To say the least, if this way of work and events continues, then perhaps it won’t take too long for the downfall of Hollywood’s entertainment industry.

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