Scarlett Johansson breaks silence on Woody Allen backlash: ‘You never know the fallout’

Scarlett Johansson has spoken more candidly than ever about the backlash she faced for publicly supporting Woody Allen, admitting she still does not know the full impact of standing by him at the height of the #MeToo movement.

In a new interview with The Telegraph, the actress was asked about her 2019 remarks to The Hollywood Reporter, where she said she loved and believed Allen and would work with him again. The comments sparked heavy online criticism at the time, as Johansson became one of the few stars willing to defend the director after allegations by his stepdaughter Dylan Farrow resurfaced. Allen has always denied the claims and was not charged following investigations in the 1990s.

Looking back, Johansson said the consequences of speaking up remain difficult to measure.

“It is hard to know. You never know what the domino effect is,” she said. “My mum always encouraged me to have integrity and stand up for what you believe in.”

She added that with experience, she has learned when to speak and when to step back.

“I think it is important to know when it is not your turn,” she said. “I do not mean silence yourself. Sometimes the moment simply is not yours.”

Johansson worked with Allen three times, starring in Match Point, Scoop and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and said in 2019 that she had discussed the allegations directly with him and believed his insistence that he was innocent.

While some stars such as Diane Keaton have also supported Allen, others including Timothée Chalamet, Michael Caine and Greta Gerwig later expressed regret about working with him. In recent years, Allen has struggled to secure distribution for his films in the United States.

Elsewhere in the interview, Johansson revealed that her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, nearly collapsed when a financier withdrew support over a storyline involving a Jewish character falsely claiming to be a Holocaust survivor. She refused to change the script and later secured backing from Sony Pictures Classics.

Aasiya Nazir