Drew Barrymore says she was ‘gaslit’ not to believe allegations about Woody Allen

Drew Barrymore has spoken out claiming she was led to ignore stories about Woody Allen’s alleged misconduct after working with the director.

Drew Barrymore said she was led to ignore stories about Woody Allen’s alleged misconduct after being asked to work with the director.

In an interview with Dylan Farrow on her talk show The Drew Barrymore Show, the actor said she was “basically gaslit” into ignoring negative stories about him.

Farrow, 35, has alleged over many years that she was molested by Woody when she was a child.

The claims were addressed in a recent HBO docuseries, Allen v. Farrow, which includes video of Farrow, then seven, alleging Woody touched her inappropriately.

The documentary has been dismissed by Woody and his wife Soon-Yi Previn as a “hatchet job riddled with falsehoods” made by directors disinterested in the truth.

“I would like to explain myself, because this is not about me, but I wanted to have this type of candour,” Barrymore told Farrow.

“I worked with Woody Allen. I did this film with him in 1996 called Everyone Says I Love You, and there was no higher career calling card than to work with Woody Allen.

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Barrymore said she was ‘gaslit’ to ignore stories about Woody Allen's misconduct.

Dylan Farrow has long alleged Woody Allen molested her as a child.

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“Then I had children and it changed me, because I realised that I was one of the people who was basically gaslit into not looking at a narrative beyond what I was being told.

“And I see what’s happening in the industry now, and that is because of you making that brave choice.”

Farrow said she found Barrymore’s comments “incredibly brave and incredibly generous”.

“Hearing what you just said, I’m trying not to cry right now,” she said. “It’s just so meaningful because it’s easy for me to say, ‘Of course you shouldn’t work with him; he’s a jerk, he’s a monster.’

“But I just find it incredibly brave and incredibly generous that you would say to me that my story, and what I went through, was important enough to you to reconsider that.”

Woody and Previn have previously said the filmmakers behind Allen v. Farrow spent years working on the film, and approached them only two months before its release.

“These documentarians had no interest in the truth,” the couple said in a joint statement issued to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Instead, they spent years surreptitiously collaborating with the Farrows and their enablers to put together a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods. Woody and Soon-Yi were approached less than two months ago and given only a matter of days to respond. Of course, they declined to do so.

Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn called the HBO docuseries Allen v. Farrow a ‘hatchet job’. Picture: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

“As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false. Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place.

“It is sadly unsurprising that the network to air this is HBO – which has a standing production deal and business relationship with Ronan Farrow. While this shoddy hit piece may gain attention, it does not change the facts.”

Woody and Previn declined to take part in the documentary, along with their son Moses, who works as a family therapist.

Woody has long denied the allegations. In a 2020 memoir, he wrote he: “Never did anything to (Dylan) that could be even misconstrued as abusing her; it was a total fabrication from start to finish.”