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| AP Photo |
The Annie Hall director bore all his usual neuroses and self-deprecations in a rare and revealing NPR interview with Sam Fragoso earlier this week.
During the conversation, Allen, whose new flick Irrational Man is suffering weak numbers at the box office, paints himself as a “middle-class” man who leads “ a very sensible life.” He spoke openly about making movies, his lack of curiosity, specifically about drugs (“I can barely bring myself to take two Extra Strength Excedrin.”), and therapy. While all that was odd, it was no surprise coming from Allen.
But things got strange, even by Woody Allen standards, when the 79-year-old started talking about his much, much younger wife, whom he started seeing while in a relationship with her mother, Mia Farrow. While Allen is a firm believer that “love fades,” he says his marriage is special. Why? Because of the massive age gap, and specifically because he was “paternal” as Soon-Yi “deferred to” him.
“I lucked out in my last relationship,” he told Fragoso. “I’ve been married now for 20 years and it’s been good. I think that was probably the odd factor that I’m so much older than the girl I married. I’m 35 years older, and somehow, through no fault of mine or hers, the dynamic worked. I was paternal. She responded to someone paternal. I liked her youth and energy. She deferred to me, and I was happy to give her an enormous amount of decision-making just as a gift and let her take charge of so many things. She flourished. It was just a good luck thing.”
That all starkly contrasts what the couple said repeatedly to the press back in the 90’s. In a Time article, Previn assured that, “To think that Woody was in any way a father or stepfather to me is laughable.” And Allen told Vanity Fair “She’s probably more mature than I am.”
