Woody Allen heaped unexpected praise on President Donald Trump during a sit-down with Bill Maher, recalling that the now-president was “very easy to work with” on his 1998 film Celebrity.
Appearing on Maher’s Club Random podcast, the 89-year-old director said Trump was “a pleasure to work with and a very good actor.”
“I’m not a Trumper,” Allen said. “I’m one of the few people who can say he directed Trump. I directed Trump in a movie. And he was a pleasure to work with and a very good actor. He was very polite—”
“How dare you,” Maher said.
“And hit his mark and did everything correctly and had a real flair for show business—” Allen continued.
“If you think you were canceled before…” Maher joked, referencing the allegations of sexual abuse that have haunted Allen for decades but came to a head in recent years as the #MeToo movement took hold.
“I could direct him now if he would let me. If he’d let me direct him now that he’s president, I think I could do wonders. But he was very easy to work with,” Allen added.
Still, Allen insisted he does not back Trump politically. “Well, you know, I’m a Democrat. I voted for Kamala Harris. And I take issue with him, you know, on 95 percent of the things. Maybe 99 percent. But as an actor, he was very good. He was very convincing and very, you know, he has a charismatic quality as an actor.”
Allen expressed surprise that Trump pursued politics, calling it “nothing but headaches and critical decisions and agony.” He added, “And this was a guy I used to see at the Knicks games, and he liked to play golf and he liked to judge beauty contests. And he liked to do things that were enjoyable and relaxing.”
Maher pressed further: “But you don’t think going into politics is the ultimate acting job?”
Allen replied, “That doesn’t bother me. They all have to put up a certain patina for the public. I disagree with almost all, not all, but almost all of his politics or his policies. I can only judge what I know from directing him in film. And he was pleasant to work with, very professional, very polite to everyone. As I say, I would like to direct him now as president and have me make the decisions. But that’s not gonna happen.”
“I’ll make a call,” Maher joked.
Allen has for decades faced allegations of sexual abuse from his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, which he has repeatedly denied.
Maher later turned the conversation toward Allen’s scandals, suggesting the director was “a victim of the over-excesses of the #MeToo movement and wokeness.”
He attempted to portray the critique of Allen as exclusively liberal, but Allen interjected, “It comes from both sides.”
Allen said he was “lucky” that his “cancellation,” so to speak, came after a long career. “I wasn’t hurt by it, but if I was 40 or 50 or 30 or something, it would have been painful,” he explained. The director has had more trouble getting films made—and faced boycotts from major stars—over the past several years.
Maher noted that Allen’s first public reckoning came much earlier. “The first wave of it happened in 1993,” Maher said, referring to allegations that Allen molested his then-seven-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, at Mia Farrow’s Connecticut home.
Allen responded that the allegations were investigated twice and found to be unsubstantiated. “It was found that nothing ever happened in both investigations, so I never really suffered as much as you might think,” he said.
He repeated that he was “lucky” that the scrutiny came after his most prolific period of work.
Maher replied, “Well, you were much younger when those two police investigations were going on. I would be s–tting in my pants.”
“You don’t if you’re innocent,” Allen replied.
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