Woody Allen: I Made Soon-Yi's Life Way Better

Filmmaker reflects on his once-controversial relationship
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 4, 2016 11:23 AM CDT
Woody Allen: I Made Soon-Yi's Life Way Better
Director Woody Allen and wife Soon-Yi Previn attend a special screening of "Irrational Man", hosted by The Cinema Society and Fiji Water, at the Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, in New York.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Woody Allen was completely "immune" to the scandal that erupted when he got involved with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his then-partner Mia Farrow, and wasn't traumatized by it "in the slightest," he tells the Hollywood Reporter in a new cover story. "I worked right through that, undiminished," he says. "Made films all through those years and at the same rate I was making them. I'm good that way. I am very disciplined and very monomaniacal and compartmentalized." The 80-year-old has now been married to Previn, 45, for 20 years, and they have two daughters, ages 15 and 17; he calls Previn "one of the great experiences of my life," and says that the contributions he's made to her life "have given me more pleasure than all my films."

Her early life as an orphan in Korea was a tough one, he says, "and so I've been able to really make her life better. I provided her with enormous opportunities, and she has sparked to them. She's educated herself and has tons of friends and children and got a college degree and went to graduate school, and she has traveled all over with me now. She's very sophisticated and has been to all the great capitals of Europe. She has just become a different person." As for what Previn has done for him, "well, she's given me a lot of pleasure," Allen says. "I adore her ... She's a great companion and a great wife. She has given me a stable and wonderful home life and great companionship." As for Farrow, Allen says, he's not even sure where she lives these days: She might "[travel] for UNICEF or something." (More Woody Allen stories.)

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