Woody Allen proclaims his innocence over Dylan Farrow claims

Filmmaker Woody Allen has again denied accusations that he molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was a child.

The allegations recently resurfaced in HBO's four-part documentary series Allen v Farrow.

A new interview with Allen, recorded in 2020, has now been released in which he denies he sexually abused her.

The director called the accusations "preposterous" and described himself as "perfectly innocent".

It is Allen's first interview on US television in nearly 30 years and was released on streaming service Paramount Plus on Sunday.

The interview was recorded in July but has only been made available now, with his answers cut between testimony from Farrow.

Farrow has accused the Oscar-winner of sexually abusing her in 1992 when she was seven years old.

"As I played with the toy train, I was sexually assaulted," Farrow told Gayle King in 2018. "As a seven-year-old, I would've said he touched my private parts."

Allen has always denied the claim, which was investigated at the time but led to no criminal charges.

"It's so preposterous, and yet the smear has remained and they still prefer to cling to, if not the notion that I molested Dylan, then the possibility that I molested her," Allen told CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan.

"Nothing that I ever did with Dylan in my life could be misconstrued as that."

Referring to Dylan Farrow's accusations, Allen added: "There was no logic to it on the face of it."

Allen did not take part in Allen v Farrow, which concluded on 14 March.

The documentary suggests Woody Allen groomed Dylan Farrow (pictured in 1987) from a young age

The new interview with Allen uses selected footage of King's 2018 interview with Dylan Farrow from CBS This Morning.

Allen has consistently denied her allegations, which were made public when Dylan was seven years old.

He has suggested Dylan Farrow was coaxed into imagining the abuse by her mother Mia Farrow, Allen's former partner.

Dylan Farrow previously told King: "How has this crazy story about me being brainwashed and coached more believable about me being sexually assaulted by my father? Every step of the way, my mother has only encouraged me to tell the truth, she's never coached me."

In the docu-series, several Farrow family members and friends claim they witnessed disturbing encounters between Allen and Dylan Farrow.

It is alleged Allen was relentlessly attached to her around the house.

"He would follow me around, always touching me, cuddling me, and if I said I wanted to go off by myself, he wouldn't let me," Farrow told King.

"He often asked me to get into bed with him when he had only his underwear on. And sometimes when only I had my underwear on."

Allen told Cowan: "She was a good kid... I believe she thinks it. I don't believe she's making it up. She's not lying. I believes she believes that."

The filmmaker's career has been significantly damaged by the allegations in recent years. One publisher decided to cancel the release of his autobiography, while Amazon pulled the release of his 2018 film A Rainy Day In New York.

Several actors have also publicly expressed regret about working with Allen. Asked about this during the interview, the director replied: "I think they're foolish. They're well-meaning, but they're foolish. All they're doing is persecuting a perfectly innocent person, and they're enabling this lie."

Allen has repeatedly suggested Dylan was coached by her mother Mia Farrow to make the allegations

In the interview, Allen reiterates his previous suggestion that Dylan's accusations were encouraged her mother Mia Farrow, who was angry at the breakup of her 12-year relationship with Allen.

He and Mia Farrow split in 1992 after Mia discovered that Allen was having an affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, who is 35 years younger than him.

Allen and Previn married in 1997 and remain together. They are now aged 85 and 50 respectively.

Asked whether it was appropriate for him to begin a relationship with Previn, Allen replied: "There was never a moment that it wasn't the most natural thing in the world... No, it didn't give me pause. The relationship with Soon-Yi was very natural."

The filmmaker also suggests the fact that he and Soon-Yi were allowed to adopt two girls supports his innocence. "They don't give two baby girls to someone they think is a paedophile," Allen said.

Allen downplays his relationship with Mia Farrow in the interview: "I never lived with Mia, I never slept at Mia's house in all of the years I went out with her. We had a relationship, but it was never going to be a marital relationship."

In a statement to Variety after the new interview was released, a representative for Allen said it had not been presented in the format that had been previously agreed.

"When the CBS morning show was taped we were told it was about his career and book," a spokesman said. "At that time nothing was said about doing a programme with cutting back and forth concerning the absurd controversy. It was on that basis that we agreed to do the show. It was only recently we found out that they were incorporating Dylan when it went on Paramount."

Author and art critic Aruna D'Souza criticised the network for their decision to air the interview with Allen.

"If someone is there being interviewed, they're given a kind of legitimacy just by the fact that they're being interviewed on a big newscast," D'Souza said.