Rebecca Hall 'Regrets' Apologizing for Working with Woody Allen: Not 'The Responsibility of His Actors to Speak to That'

Mar. 15, 2025

Woody Allen and Rebecca Hall in San Sebastian, Spain, on Sept. 18, 2008.Photo:Walter McBride/Corbis via Getty

Walter McBride/Corbis via Getty

Rebecca Hallis reconsidering her previous statement about being “profoundly sorry” for working withWoody Allen.

The actress, 42, has collaborated with Allen, 88, twice: first on his 2008 filmVicky Cristina Barcelonaand, later, for 2019’sA Rainy Day in New York. But in 2018, she issued a statement expressing regret for working with him, amid the filmmaker’s controversies and theTime’s Upmovement.

In a new interview withThe Guardianpublished Sunday, Nov. 17, Hall admitted that she “struggle(s)” with the statement today, explaining, “I kind of regret making that statement, because I don’t think it’s the responsibility of his actors to speak to that situation.”

The actress went on to say “it’s very unlike” her “to make a public statement about anything.” Instead, she added, “I make the stuff; that’s how I am political. I don’t think of myself as an ‘actor-vist’; I’m not that person.”

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Rebecca Hall and Woody Allen on the set ofVicky Cristina Barcelona(2008).Mediapro / DR/ Alamy

Mediapro / DR/ Alamy

Back in 2018, Hall said she had donated her salary from her movies with Allen to the Time’s Up movement, making the emotional announcement on Instagram and saying that reading statements from Dylan, 39, helped her realize thatworking with the controversial director was a mistake.

After reading Dylan’s statements about Allen, Hall said at the time that she came to understand “that my actions have made another woman feel silenced and dismissed.”

She added in part, “That is not something that sits easily with me in the current or indeed any moment, and I am profoundly sorry. I regret this decision and wouldn’t make the same one today.”

In her new interview withThe Guardian, Hall recalled working onA Rainy Day in New YorkwithJude Lawon a scene in which her character says, " ‘You’ve got to stop sleeping with these f—ing 15-year-olds.’ And that day, the[Harvey] Weinsteinscandal breaks. There’s a bank of journalists and paparazzi right there, because Weinstein’s a producer on it, and they’re all listening to me say this.”

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Woody Allen in Venice, Italy, on Sept. 4, 2023.Kristy Sparow/FilmMagic

Kristy Sparow/FilmMagic

She said she felt “in a tangle” in the time following, and that “in this moment, it’s the most important thing to believe the women. Yes, of course, there’s going to be complications and nuances in these stories, but we’re redressing a balance here. So I felt like I wanted to do something definitive.”

That led her to make the statement, she said. “But it just became, ‘Another persondenounces Woody Allen and regrets working with him,' " which is not what I said actually,” she added. “I don’t regret working with him. He gave me a great job opportunity and he was kind to me.”

While she doesn’t “talk to” Allen “anymore,” Hall clarified, “I don’t think that we should be the ones who are doing judge and jury on this.”

And if she was in the same position today, “I wouldn’t say anything — my policy actually is to be an artist," she toldThe Guardian. “Don’t come out and state your stuff so much. I don’t think that makes me apathetic or not engaged. I just think it’s my job.”

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source: people.com