Timothee Chalamet’s public disavowal of Woody Allen was a cynical attempt to boost his chances of winning an Oscar, the director has claimed.
Chalamet starred in Allen’s comedy A Rainy Day In New York but later distanced himself from the acclaimed filmmaker and donated his salary from the movie to charity.
He was just one of many stars to admit regretting working with Allen after the #MeToo movement brought a renewed focus on allegations he sexually assaulted his daughter Dylan Farrow, which he vehemently denies.
At the time of his statement in January 2018, Chalamet, 24, was being widely praised for his role in Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 drama Call Me by Your Name.
Now, writing in his memoir Apropos Of Nothing, Allen has claimed the US actor was trying to improve his chances of success at the Oscars.
“All three leads in Rainy Day were excellent and a pleasure to work with,” Allen, 84, wrote of Chalamet and his co-stars Elle Fanning and Selena Gomez.
“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.”
Chalamet released a statement on Instagram on January 16 2018 announcing he did not want to profit from his work on A Rainy Day In New York and was instead donating the money to Time’s Up, The LGBT Centre in New York City, and the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network.
Oscar nominations were announced on January 23.
A representative for Chalamet, whose most recent role was in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, has been contacted for comment.
Allen’s memoir was released on Monday by Arcade Publishing after a tortuous journey to publication.
Its original publisher, Hachette Book Group, dropped the book following a high-profile backlash against its decision to work with Allen.
Allen’s estranged son, prominent journalist Ronan Farrow, was among those condemning the company for planning to publish the book. He released his Catch And Kill with Hachette last year.
A Rainy Day In New York, a romantic comedy about a young couple’s weekend break in Manhattan, also fell victim the controversy surrounding its director.
It was shot in 2017 and was originally supposed to be released by Amazon, who later dropped it. The film is still without a distributor in the UK and US.