Adrien Brody: ‘It would be unfair of me’ to judge Roman Polanski, Woody Allen for sexual assault allegations

A French comedian’s rape joke at the Cannes Film Festival reignited a fiery debate in Hollywood: Does talent trump morals?

Adrien Brody has worked with both directors at the center of the ethical quandary: Roman Polanski (who fled the United States in 1977 while on trial for raping a 13-year-old) in 2002’s The Pianist, and Woody Allen (whose daughter Dylan Farrow has accused him of molesting her as a child) in 2011’s Midnight in Paris. (He denies her claims.)

“Life is very complicated,” Brody, 43, said Monday on Dirty, Sexy, Funny with Jenny McCarthy. “I look to collaborate with artistic people and to go into an endeavor without judgment and to hopefully be treated with the same. It’s an artistic pursuit, and Polanski for instance had a very complicated and difficult life. It would be unfair of me to delve into something as complicated as the past that was brought up in the media.”

The actor won an Oscar for his portrayal of a World War II-era composer in The Pianist.

“So do you think private lives should be separated from work?” asked McCarthy, 43.

“Well, to a certain extent. I mean, again, people make mistakes in lives,” he said.

Asked about a double standard for how people treat Bill Cosby — who’s essentially been exiled from show business — versus Allen — who still has A-listers lining up for his star-studded films, like Cafe Society — Brody said, “I don’t even read about these things, to be honest.”

“I choose not to indulge this kind of fodder,” he explained. “I think there’s a lot of catastrophe in this world and a lot of cruelty and a lot of carelessness. Of course it’s horrible what comes out sometimes, and people have done things in their lives that may be inexcusable, but it’s not something to focus on.”

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