Woody Allen Opens Up About His ‘Paternal’ Relationship With Soon-Yi Previn
Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn at the Magic in the Moonlight premiere at Paris Theater on July 17, 2014, in New York City. (Photo: Getty Images)
He might be one of Hollywood’s most prolific directors, but Woody Allen rarely steps into the spotlight. His personal life has remained just that, with interviews focused on his filmmaking instead of his marriages or children, let alone the controversies surrounding both. But the 79-year-old opened up to NPR, revealing more about himself in one sitting than he has over the course of his 50-year career.
Allen has been married to Soon-Yi Previn for 20 years, but their relationship began when he was still involved with her adoptive mother, Mia Farrow (Soon-Yi’s father is Farrow’s ex-husband Andre Previn). “I started the relationship with her and I thought it would just be a fling. It wouldn’t be serious, but it had a life of its own. And I never thought it would be anything more,” Allen revealed. “Then we started going together, then we started living together, and we were enjoying it. And the age difference didn’t seem to matter. It seemed to work in our favor, actually.”
Allen in fact credits the drastic age difference as key to the couple’s success; they met when Soon-Yi was still a teenager and got together when she was 21. “I’m 35 years older, and somehow, through no fault of mine or hers, the dynamic worked. I was paternal. She responded to someone paternal. I liked her youth and energy. She deferred to me, and I was happy to give her an enormous amount of decision making just as a gift and let her take charge of so many things. She flourished. It was just a good luck thing.” Allen added, “She enjoyed being introduced to many, many things that I knew from experience, and I enjoyed showing her those things. She took them, and outstripped me in certain areas that I showed her.” Interestingly, Previn told Time magazine in 1992 that she never considered Allen a father figure, even calling the claim “laughable.”
Yet Allen, who has two adopted children with Soon-Yi, gives luck the most credit for their long-lasting union. “I feel that you can’t orchestrate those things. Two people come along and they have a trillion exquisite needs and neuroses and nuances and they have to mesh, and if one of them doesn’t mesh, it causes a lot of trouble. It’s like the trace vitamin not being in your body. It’s a tiny little thing, but if you don’t have it you die.”
He also spoke with writer Sam Fragoso about claims that Allen’s adopted daughter Dylan Farrow has accused him of molesting her when she was just 7 years old. He deflects the line of questioning, which he denies, saying that it has yet to affect his work, even though some believe it should. Actors still flock to work with him — Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone star in his latest movie, Irrational Man. “I always had a small audience. People did not come in great abundance and they still don’t, and I’ve maintained the same audience over the years. If the reviews are bad, they don’t come. If the reviews are good, they probably come.”
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