During a bizarre interview conducted by Alec Baldwin on Tuesday, director Woody Allen revealed he may retire for good soon. The livestreamed interview took place on Baldwin’s Instagram account, which boasts 2.4 million subscribers; a rare event, as Allen’s appearances are scarce. Allen directed the actor in Alice (1990), To Rome With Love (2012) and Blue Jasmine (2013) and Baldwin has expressed love for Allen, calling his films a “warm bath for me that makes everything ok.”
As for his retirement, Allen cited his waning passion for making films and the fast-paced film consumer industry which removes the ‘fun’ from releasing a movie.
“I’ll probably make at least one more movie,” Allen told Baldwin on Instagram Live. “A lot of the thrill is gone. When I used to do a film it’d go into a movie house all across the country. Now you do a movie and you get a couple weeks in a movie house. Maybe six weeks or four weeks and then it goes right to streaming or pay-per-view… It’s not the same… It’s not as enjoyable to me.”
“I don’t get the same fun doing a movie and putting it in a theater,” Allen added. “It was a nice feeling to know that 500 people were seeing it once… I don’t know how I feel about making movies. I’m going to make another one and I’ll see how it feels.”
Allen’s career spans over fifty years, directing critically-acclaimed films such as Annie Hall, Blue Jasmine, and Midnight in Paris. He has accrued 16 Oscar nominations and 4 wins.
Baldwin avoided tough questions during the interview, sticking the discussion around Allen’s book writing and his new essay series, “Zero Gravity.” Baldwin did acknowledge Allen’s adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow’s, accusation of molesting her as a child, in a statement he wrote on Instagram prior to the interview.
“Let me preface this by stating that I have zero interest in anyone’s judgments and sanctimonious posts here,” Baldwin wrote on Instagram ahead of the interview. “I am obviously someone who has my own set of beliefs and could not care less about anyone else’s speculation. If you believe that a trial should be conducted by way of an HBO documentary, that’s your issue.”
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