Maybe this will get Hollywood to listen…
It’s been a topic that has been danced around for decades, but Dylan Farrow wants everyone to know exactly what Woody Allen did to her all those years ago.
The open letter, printed in the The New York Times, is very heartfelt, matter-of-fact, and to the point. In fact, it starts out like this:
“What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.”
Wow. Srsly heavy stuff. And it only got harder to read when Dylan talked about how she felt after she told her mom, Mia Farrow:
“When I asked my mother if her dad did to her what Woody Allen did to me, I honestly did not know the answer. I also didn’t know the firestorm it would trigger. I didn’t know that my father would use his sexual relationship with my sister to cover up the abuse he inflicted on me. I didn’t know that he would accuse my mother of planting the abuse in my head and call her a liar for defending me. I didn’t know that I would be made to recount my story over and over again, to doctor after doctor, pushed to see if I’d admit I was lying as part of a legal battle I couldn’t possibly understand. At one point, my mother sat me down and told me that I wouldn’t be in trouble if I was lying – that I could take it all back. I couldn’t. It was all true. But sexual abuse claims against the powerful stall more easily. There were experts willing to attack my credibility. There were doctors willing to gaslight an abused child.”
This is so horrible! We can’t imagine going through anything this traumatic!
Then things got even more intense when Dylan names Woody’s most loyal members of the glitterati , saying:
“What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?
Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.
So imagine your seven-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen. Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormenter.
Are you imagining that? Now, what’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?”
We’d be interested to see what those celebs have to say about this too! Maybe they just hadn’t thought of it from that point of view before.
If you’re feeling really down now, Dylan did talk about the positives in her life too! She explained:
“Today, I consider myself lucky. I am happily married. I have the support of my amazing brothers and sisters. I have a mother who found within herself a well of fortitude that saved us from the chaos a predator brought into our home.”
Good! We’re glad that Dylan has finally found happiness after all of these years with people who truly love her!
Now, we wait and see what happens with Hollywood and Allen’s Oscars nomination.
Thoughts???
[Image via BauerGriffinOnline.]
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