In a candid new interview, acclaimed British actor Rebecca Hall says she regrets issuing a public apology in 2018 for working with embattled director Woody Allen. The star, who appeared in Allen’s 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, had released a statement expressing her “profound sorrow” and vowing never to work with him again amid renewed focus on sexual assault allegations against the filmmaker.
But now, Hall tells the Observer that she no longer believes it’s the responsibility of actors to speak out on such controversial situations involving directors they’ve collaborated with. “I don’t think that we should be the ones who are doing judge and jury on this,” she explained. “I just think it’s my job to be an artist.”
A Statement Made in an “Emotional Tangle”
Hall says her high-profile 2018 statement, which also included a pledge to donate her salary from a newer Allen film to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, was made at a charged moment. It came in the wake of the explosive Harvey Weinstein abuse revelations and a public call from Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow for Hollywood to stop supporting him over her sexual assault allegations against her father.
The actor recalls being in an “emotional tangle” and pregnant at the time. She understood the significance of the post-Weinstein era and the need to believe women, “so I felt like I wanted to do something definitive.” But in retrospect, Hall, who is normally very private, doesn’t recognize that impulse. “It is very unlike me to make a public statement about anything. I don’t think of myself as an actor-vist. I’m not that person.”
I don’t regret working with him. He gave me a great job opportunity and he was kind to me.
– Rebecca Hall on Woody Allen
No Regrets About the Work Itself
Though her views on publicly addressing the controversy have shifted, Hall emphasizes that she doesn’t regret the actual experience of working with Allen, noting he gave her a major career opportunity and treated her well. But she no longer speaks with the director, even as she questions whether his actors should be the ones put in a position of “judge and jury.”
Hall’s stance reflects the complex tangle of personal, professional and ethical considerations that actors increasingly face in an era of heightened accountability around sexual misconduct and abuse of power. Many have felt compelled to take public stands, but others have grappled with questions of what responsibility they bear for the alleged actions of colleagues.
Separating Art from Controversy
For her part, Hall says her approach now is to focus on her role as an artist, even as she remains engaged with important issues. “I don’t think that makes me apathetic or not engaged,” she told the Observer. “I just think it’s my job.”
The actor, who recently earned acclaim for her directorial debut Passing, is currently promoting her new BBC drama The Listeners and developing her next film Lovely, Ordinary Days – projects she is throwing herself into as she moves forward from a period of self-reflection and reassessment catalyzed in part by her mother’s death two years ago.
As she enters a new phase, Hall seems determined to bring a hard-won sense of clarity to her work and her place in the industry, even as she grapples with lingering questions about how to navigate its most fractious debates. “I don’t talk to [Allen] anymore,” she told the Observer. “But I don’t think that we should be the ones who are doing judge and jury on this.”
