Kate Winslet: ‘What The F**k Was I Doing Working With Woody Allen And Roman Polanski?’

Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet now regrets having worked for Roman Polanski and Woody Allen in the past.

Speaking with Vanity Fair, Winslet said that she wants to be a “decent example to younger women” and could not understand her mindset at the time she filmed with the two directors. She starred in Polanski’s “Carnage” in 2011 and Allen’s “Wonder Wheel” in 2017.

“It’s like, what the f**k was I doing working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski?” she said. “It’s unbelievable to me now how those men were held in such high regard, so widely in the film industry and for as long as they were. It’s f**king disgraceful.”

“I can’t turn back the clock,” she added. “I’m grappling with those regrets but what do we have if we aren’t able to just be f**king truthful about all of it?”

Since 1993, Dylan Farrow has maintained that Woody Allen sexually molested her while he dated her mother, Mia Farrow. Allen has emphatically denied the accusation, claiming that Mia coached Dylan as part of a vicious custody dispute. The charges were ultimately dismissed by authorities and Moses Farrow, Dylan’s brother, has defended Allen’s innocence while asserting that Mia was the abusive one.

Roman Polanski previously admitted to sexually abusing 13-year-old Samantha Geimer before fleeing to Europe in the late-70s. He drugged and sodomized her during a photoshoot at Jack Nicholson’s house in 1977. During the height of the #MeToo movement, as many as five women came forward to accuse Roman Polanski of sexually assaulting them when they were teenagers.

In 2017, upon the release of Allen’s “Wonder Wheel,” Kate Winslet told The New York Times that she could not fully comment on the allegations of sexual abuse against the director, adding that she had an “extraordinary working experience” with both Allen and Polanski.

“I didn’t know Woody and I don’t know anything about that family. As the actor in the film, you just have to step away and say, I don’t know anything, really, and whether any of it is true or false,” she said, as reported by Fox News. “Having thought it all through, you put it to one side and just work with the person. Woody Allen is an incredible director. So is Roman Polanski. I had an extraordinary working experience with both of those men, and that’s the truth.” 

In 2018, when giving her acceptance speech for the London Critics’ Circle film award, Winslet expressed regret for her “poor decisions” to work with such men.

“As women around the world and from all walks of life marched last weekend, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to stand here this evening and keep to myself some bitter regrets that I have about poor decisions to work with individuals with whom I wish I had not,” the “Titanic” actress said. “It has become clear to me that by not saying anything, I might be adding to the anguish of many courageous women and men.”

“There are directors, producers, and men of power who have for decades been awarded and applauded for their highly regarded work by both this industry and moviegoers alike,” she continued.