Woody Allen Haters Remember the Time A 17-Year-Old Twiggy Made Him Look Like An Absolute Ass
A 31-year-old Woody Allen once asked a teenaged Twiggy one of the more insulting interview questions of her young career, but the English icon clapped right back — it was about time an underaged girl shut him down.
For all of Allen’s many alleged misdeeds involving girls under the age of consent, his infamous 1967 interview with an up-and-coming model, actress and singer is, admittedly, comparatively tame. Dame Lesley Lawson, better known by the mononym Twiggy, was visiting America for the first time in her life when she appeared on camera in front of a live audience to speak to another, significantly older rising star who, unbeknownst to Twiggy, had secretly resolved to embarrass the young girl and assert his intellectual superiority over her. Little did Allen know that he was about to subject himself to six decades of ridicule.
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Today, Twitter is celebrating Twiggy for pulling off the greatest Uno reverse card in the history of Allen’s misogyny. In a thread about the greatest-ever interview clap-backs, critics of Allen’s behavior around young girls lauded Twiggy for silencing the acclaimed director and alleged pedophile’s attempt to humiliate her with the question, “What are your views on serious matters? Like, who’s your favourite philosopher?”
Allen’s failure to name a single philosopher after challenging Twiggy to do the same may remain iconic over 60 years later, but Twiggy herself can still feel the sting of that embarrassing moment when she realized that Allen was trying to humiliate her in front of a live audience and on camera. In the 2024 biographical documentary Twiggy, the multi-hyphenate artist recalled the most insulting, uncomfortable and embarrassing experiences from her teen star years, and the now-76-year-old called out Allen by name for his attempt to belittle her as a child.
“He was trying to make me look stupid,” Twiggy said of Allen. “My heart sank. I remember looking at him, pleading with my eyes for him to stop.”
Twiggy also made a point to call out how exceptionally gross and mean-spirited it was for a 31-year-old Allen to pull such a stunt on a literal child — although we can’t say that it was exactly out of character.
“If I was the age he was there, in my 30s, I would never have behaved like that towards someone who was only 17,” Twiggy said of Allen’s conduct during the interview.
If Twiggy had a nickel for every time someone said that about Allen, she could buy his entire filmography.
