Woody Allen says Timothée Chalamet "denounced" him to improve Oscar chances

In his controversial new memoir, Woody Allen has responded to Timothée Chalamet's public denouncement of the disgraced director, stating that Chalamet only made his statement to improve his chances of an Oscar nomination for Call Me By Your Name. 

In 2018, after filming A Rainy Day In New York, Chalamet took to Instagram to release a statement where he said he regretted working with Allen, who has long been accused by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow of sexual abuse.

“I am learning that a good role isn’t the only criteria for accepting a job – that has become much clearer to me in the past few months, having witnessed the birth of a powerful movement intent on ending injustice, inequality and above all, silence,” he wrote, noting that his entire salary from the film would be going to charities: the #MeToo-related Time’s Up, the LGBT Centre in New York, and Rainn [the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network].

In the memoir, Allen says: “Timothee afterward publicly stated he regretted working with me and was giving the money to charity, but he swore to my sister he needed to do that as he was up for an Oscar for Call Me By Your Name, and he and his agent felt he had a better chance of winning if he denounced me, so he did”.

Huffington Post noted that Chalamet's statement was released a full week before the Oscar nominations were revealed, and so at the time Chalamet had no knowledge that he would be nominated for an Academy Award.

Allen's memoir Apropos of Nothing was dropped by its initial publisher Hachette, after Allen's son Ronan Farrow withdrew his own work from the company. It has since been picked up by Arcade Publishing. In the memoir, Allen says Hachette agreed to publish the memoir even though they knew he was "a toxic pariah and menace to society".

Last year, Allen ended a long legal battle with Amazon Studios after they shelved A Rainy Day In New York indefinitely.