Kate Winslet said that she now “regrets” working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski after they had been accused of sexual assault.
“What the f–k was I doing working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski?” Winslet told Vanity Fair. “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.”
Winslet, 44, had appeared in Polanksi’s 2011 film Carnage, and more recently starred in Allen’s 2017 movie Wonder Wheel.
“I have to take responsibility for the fact that I worked with them both,” the actress went on to say. “I can’t turn back the clock. 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?”
In the interview, Winslet also talked about her new period-drama Ammonite that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on Friday. In the film, she plays a female fossil collector and paleontologist who falls in love with a female geologist, played by Saoirse Ronan.
“Ammonite has made me really aware of being even more committed to honoring what women want to be saying for themselves in films and how we really want to be portrayed, regardless of sexual orientation,” Winslet said. “Because life is f–k short and I’d like to do my best when it comes to setting a decent example to younger women. We’re handing them a pretty f–ked up world, so I’d like to do my bit in having some proper integrity.”
In 2018, during her acceptance speech at the London Critics’ Circle Awards, Winslet hinted at the regret she felt for working with Allen and Polanski.
“I wouldn’t be able to stand here this evening, and keep to myself some bitter regrets that I have at poor decisions to work with individuals with whom I wish I had not,” Winslet 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. Sexual abuse is a crime. While it rests with the rule of law to pass judgment, it lies with all of us to listen to the smallest of voices and to never stop listening.”
Allen had been placed under public scrutiny after he was accused of sexually assaulting his daughter Dylan Farrow in 1993, and after he married the adopted daughter of his longtime partner Mia Farrow in 1997. Polanski had been arrested in 1977 for raping a 13-year-old girl, and pleaded guilty to one of the six charges he faced, unlawful sexual intercourse. Polanski fled to France the following year, and has not been able to return to the United States.
