--- title: Blake Lively Says Working With Woody Allen Is 'Empowering' description: The Shallows star Blake Lively praises controversial public figure Woody Allen, who directed her in his newest film, Cafe Society. canonical: https://time.com/4389552/blake-lively-says-working-with-woody-allen-is-empowering/ author: Megan Lasher article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-30T21:48:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:51.521Z og:title: Blake Lively Says Working With Woody Allen Is 'Empowering' og:description: In a new interview that did not mention the allegations against Allen og:url: https://time.com/4389552/blake-lively-says-working-with-woody-allen-is-empowering/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf97eb9569a609751/69889a49ab6d7722896aa48e/blake-lively-woody-allen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: "Cafe Society" Photocall - The 69th Annual Cannes Film Festival og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Blake Lively Says Working With Woody Allen Is 'Empowering' twitter:description: In a new interview that did not mention the allegations against Allen twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf97eb9569a609751/69889a49ab6d7722896aa48e/blake-lively-woody-allen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Blake Lively Says Working With Woody Allen Is 'Empowering' > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=335dcd3e-481d-493b-804d-bbb2c69ea43e&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [Megan Lasher](https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/) ## Megan Lasher Jun 30, 2016 9:48 PM UTC  Actress Blake Lively, director Woody Allen and Kristen Stewart attends the "Cafe Society" photocall during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 11, 2016 in Cannes, France. Actress Blake Lively, director Woody Allen and Kristen Stewart attends the "Cafe Society" photocall during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 11, 2016 in Cannes, France. George Pimentel—WireImage/Getty Images by [Megan Lasher](https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/) ## Megan Lasher Jun 30, 2016 9:48 PM UTC _The Shallows_ star [Blake Lively](http://motto.time.com/4376301/blake-lively-ryan-reynolds-breeders/) has a lot going on right now: Between her new summer movie, [her second pregnancy](http://motto.time.com/4380137/blake-lively-pregnancy-ryan-reynolds/) and [recentCannes appearance](http://motto.time.com/4340634/blake-lively-cannes-oakland-booty/), she’s made plenty of headlines this month. And she’s been outspoken in her praise of Woody Allen, who directed her in his newest film, _Cafe Society_. “\[Allen\] creates a very pleasant set where everybody’s just happy to be there and happy to be making a movie, and happy to be a part of film history,” [she told _Hamptons Magazine_ in an interview published on Wednesday](http://hamptons-magazine.com/blake-lively-working-on-cafe-society-the-shallows-and-hamptons-favorites). “For him to have that confidence in you almost gives you the confidence in yourself to just go with the flow.” “He also is really encouraging as to why he cast you,” Lively continued, noting that she was given opportunities to make her own decisions for her character in _Cafe Society_. “He’ll say, ‘Say the dialogue that’s written and then you can improvise for a while.’ And his dialogue is so specific, and it’s speaking in a 1930s dialect and \[with period\] references, so it’s intimidating to think, Oh, let me just improvise there and hope that my words blend seamlessly alongside Woody Allen’s. Which they clearly wouldn’t and don’t. But he’s very empowering.” Allen has faced renewed criticism regarding the alleged [sexual assault of his stepdaughter Dylan Farrow](http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/) in 1993\. Mia Farrow brought charges against Allen on behalf of her daughter, but the judge [found the evidence to be inconclusive](https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/02/23/reviews/farrow-verdict.html) that same year. Lively criticized a host at the [Cannes Film Festival](http://variety.com/2016/film/news/blake-lively-rips-cannes-for-controversial-woody-allen-rape-joke-1201772516/) last month for making a rape joke referring Allen as well as other comments about other attendees. She separately declined to comment about the allegations to the [Los Angeles Times](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/filmfestivals/la-et-mn-woody-allen-cafe-society-interview-farrow-20160512-snap-story.html), saying, “It’s very dangerous to factor in things you don’t know anything about. I could \[only\] know my experience. And my experience with Woody is he’s empowering to women.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4389552/blake-lively-says-working-with-woody-allen-is-empowering/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4389552/blake-lively-says-working-with-woody-allen-is-empowering/"},"headline":"Blake Lively Says Working With Woody Allen Is 'Empowering'","datePublished":"2016-06-30T21:48:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:51.521Z","description":"A new interview did not make any reference to the sexual assault allegations against Allen","url":"https://time.com/4389552/blake-lively-says-working-with-woody-allen-is-empowering/","keywords":["motto","News"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf97eb9569a609751/69889a49ab6d7722896aa48e/blake-lively-woody-allen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Lasher","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf97eb9569a609751/69889a49ab6d7722896aa48e/blake-lively-woody-allen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Cafe Society\" Photocall - The 69th Annual Cannes Film Festival","caption":"Actress Blake Lively, director Woody Allen and Kristen Stewart attends the \"Cafe Society\" photocall during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 11, 2016 in Cannes, France.","creditText":"George Pimentel—WireImage/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4389552/blake-lively-says-working-with-woody-allen-is-empowering/","name":"Blake Lively Says Working With Woody Allen Is 'Empowering'"}}]}] ```