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According toVariety, the Oscar winner, 49, spoke about his career during a masterclass at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France, from learning English thanks to AC/DC to growing up in Spain and all he’d picked up at the hands of a range of directors, including theCoen Brothersand 82-year-old Allen.
The latter, who worked with Bardem on the 2008 filmVicky, Christina, Barcelona, has facedlongstanding accusations of sexual abuse from his daughter Dylan, one of Allen’s three children with exMia Farrow. Dylanpublicly claimedin 2014 that her father molested her as a child. When the allegations first surfaced during his explosive split from Mia in 1992, the director was not charged.
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Bardem told his students on Monday that Allen is “a genius” and he “would work with him tomorrow.”
The actor then emphasized that Allen hasn’t been convicted of a crime. “Today, 11 years later, it is the same accusation,” he asserted. “Public accusations are very dangerous. If some day there is a trial and it’s proven to be true, I would change my opinion, but at this moment, nothing has changed.”
After stating that he’s “absolutely not” ashamed of working with the father of five, Bardem revealed he had “doubts” over the criticism of Allen for the allegations.
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A New York State Child Welfare investigation at the time found “no credible evidence” Dylan had been “abused or maltreated.”
The Connecticut investigation took a controversial turn when state attorney Frank S. Maco announced in 1993 that despite finding “probable cause” to prosecute Allen, he was dropping the case because Dylan was too “fragile” to deal with a trial.
In 2013, after Dylanopenedup toVanity Fairabout the alleged molestation, Maco told PEOPLE that Dylan was “traumatized to the extent that I did not have a confident witness to testify in any court setting, whether that’s a closed courtroom or an open courtroom.”
source: people.com
