Woody Allen tells Alec Baldwin he's thinking about retiring from directing: 'A lot of the thrill is gone'

Woody Allen, the prolific and controversial writer, actor, and director, made a rare appearance on Alec Baldwin's Instagram Live Tuesday morning.

During an hourlong conversation with the actor — albeit one with more than a few glitches — the Blue Jasmine and Midnight in Paris director said he's thinking about retiring from movie-making.

"I'll probably make at least one more movie, but a lot of the thrill is gone because it doesn't have the whole cinema effect," Allen said, starting at the 36:10 mark of the Instagram Live. "When I started to do a film, it would go into movie houses all over the country and people would come by the hundreds to watch it in big groups on a big screen. Now you do a movie and you get a couple of weeks in a movie house — maybe six weeks, two weeks, or whatever — and then it goes right to streaming or right to Pay-Per-View."

"People love sitting home with their big screens and watching on their television sets, and they have good sound and clear picture, but it's not the same as when I went into the movie business," he continued. "So it's not as enjoyable to me as it was. I don't get the same fun of doing a movie and putting it in a movie house."

Allen confirmed he'll make at least one more movie, which he plans to shoot this fall in Paris. After that, he's going to see how he feels.

Tony Barson/FilmMagic Woody Allen

During the pandemic, Allen said he felt "petrified, hiding under the bed" and he "didn't go out for months." Then he realized, "Gee, I like it under the bed."

"I don't have to go out, I don't have to make a film... I'm home and there's nothing I can do but exercise, practice my clarinet, and write," Allen said. "I thought to myself, What if I didn't make film? ... Then I thought, Maybe I'll make one or two more. You know, I'm 86 years old. I like staying home and writing."

The interview with Baldwin marks one of Allen's most prominent public appearances since an accusation of sexual abuse by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow resurfaced amid the #MeToo movement.

Farrow first accused Allen of molestation in 1992, though the filmmaker was never convicted and denies the claim. Farrow stands by her statements and detailed them in the HBO documentary Allen vs. Farrow, which premiered in 2021 and delves deep into Farrow's allegations.

Baldwin is one of a handful of celebrities that's voiced support for Allen in recent years. When he announced his interview with the filmmaker — with whom he's worked on Alice (1990), To Rome With Love (2012), and Blue Jasmine (2013) — the actor told his Instagram followers that he has "ZERO INTEREST in anyone's judgments and sanctimonious posts here."

"I am OBVIOUSLY someone who has my own set of beliefs and COULD NOT CARE LESS about anyone else's speculation," he wrote. "If you believe that a trial should be conducted by way of an HBO documentary, that's your issue."

Baldwin, too, has been dealing with his own trials. He is, along with others involved in the making of the Western film Rust, currently being sued by the family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died on the set of the movie after Baldwin fired what he thought to be a non-lethal prop gun.

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