Woody’s Wonderful Women
We look at the women who have inspired him through the years
Picture Editing: Sandra Waibl
Emma Stone
Emma Stone took on the role of a supposed-mystic in Woody's Magic By Moonlight - opposite a cynical magician, played by Colin Firth in 2014. And a year later, she's back - this time with a philosophising Joaquin Phoenix in Woody's Irrational Man.
Number of Woody Movies: 2
Rex FeaturesDiane Keaton
Diane Keaton was Woody Allen’s woman both on and off screen. The actress won an Oscar for her role in Annie Hall, thought to be a loosely autobiographical account of the couple’s relationship. Though the pair split in 1972, the actress starred in several of Woody’s later films; and the director even said recently that it was Diane who’d helped him understand and write female characters.
Number of Woody Movies: 8
Rex FeaturesMia Farrow
Mia Farrow was another leading lady that Woody romanced on and off-screen. The actress appeared in nearly all of his film between 1980 and 1992. Notable among these were Hannah and Her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Husbands and Wives and Zelig. Several of Mia’s relatives also appeared in his movies; but their relationship came to an abrupt end, when she discovered he was having an affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi, whom he later married.
Number of Woody Movies: 13
Rex FeaturesScarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is one of Woody’s most recent favourite actresses. “As soon as I met her, I had a very good rapport with her. She's very charming, very bright, very amusing. She livens the set up. The minute she walks on the set, the amperage goes up 200 points,” the director said of the actress. Her of the sultry pout and voluptuous physique has played a cheating fiancée in Matchpoint, an awkward journalist in Scoop and a nonconformist in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Number of Woody Movies: 3
Rex FeaturesPenelope Cruz
Woody Allen has no qualms about casting Penelope Cruz in the most dramatic of roles: the Spaniard has starred as a flashy prostitute in To Rome With Love and the mentally unstable María Elena in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. And she was excellent in both. Talking about meeting the director for the first time, Penelope said: “Woody and I had a meeting in New York for 40 seconds, and when I left, the people who worked in his office said, ‘Oh - you have been there for a very long time.’”
Number of Woody Movies: 2
Rex FeaturesChloe Sevigny
Woody put Chloe Sevigny’s famously quirky style to good use by casting her as a suave Manhattanite in 2004’s Melinda and Melinda. Chloe had auditioned for Woody twice before and not gotten the parts so was thrilled to finally bag a role. “I was terrified,” she said. “I got to go to his office and read the entire script, which not many actors get to do, I felt like he must like me. So I felt a little bit safer walking into the project, knowing I had been privy to the entire script.”
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesGoldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn isn’t the first name that springs to mind when talking about Woody Allen’s leading ladies, but the actress starred in his 1996 musical Everyone Says I Love You. The film consisted of classic songs, reworked for a modern scenario, and the choreography was deliberately amateurish to make it seem for more natural. Woody had to ask Goldie to sing deliberately badly to make her sound more like a normal person bursting into song.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesEvan Rachel Wood
Another unexpected Woody star is Evan Rachel Wood. It was 2009, and the actress was in the middle of her on-off relationship with Marilyn Manson, when she decided to take on the role of a simple 21-year-old, who is taken in by a former Columbian professor. Also appearing in the movie, was a then-unknown Henry Cavill. You can’t say Woody doesn’t known talent when he sees it.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesRachel McAdams
Smart, sexy, sassy – Rachel McAdams has all the hallmarks of one of Woody’s female stars, so no wonder he snapped her up for a role in 2011 romantic comedy Midnight in Paris. In the film, her character Ines, has to put up with an unfulfilled Hollywood screenwriter as a husband (Owen Wilson) and his mysterious nightly wanderings as they take in the French capital.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesMira Sorvino
Mira Sorvino might not have the high profile of some of Woody’s other stars, but the actress owes the director big time. In 1995 she was a relative unknown when Woody cast her as a ditzy prostitute and part-time porn star in Mighty Aphrodite. She went on to win an Oscar and Golden Globe for the role. “Getting to work for him [Woody] was such a dream come true, and I never thought it could happen that early in my career. That was just an amazing role and a great experience,” Mira recently revealed.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesMelanie Griffith
Woody Allen cast Melanie Griffith as Nicole Oliver in Celebrity, a movie that looks at how people will do absolutely anything to become famous – and stay famous. As you’d expect from its title, the flick had its fair share of celebs, with Winona Ryder, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kenneth Branagh also appearing.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesMeryl Streep
Meryl Streep appeared as Woody Allen’s ex-wife in 1979’s Manhattan. Amazingly, the actress, who had three flicks out in the same year, filmed her scenes during movie breaks on Kramer V Kramer.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesNaomi Watts
Naomi Watts had been set to appear opposite her best friend Nicole Kidman in the 2010 film You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger but Nicole had to pull out as she was also appearing in Rabbit Hole. Despite this, the movie is still packed to the rafters with famous actors; Naomi stars as the daughter of Anthony Hopkins and the wife of Josh Brolin. She considers having an affair with Antonio Banderas and her protégé is Anna Friel. Naomi had been on Woody’s list for years. “I wanted to work with Naomi Watts for a long time,” he said, “and then I cast her in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger as the discontented wife of a philandering husband. And she was very funny and very sexy.”
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesDrew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore dipped her toe into the world of Woody Allen, starring in his 1998 musical Everyone Says I Love You. As well as wearing a wig to hide her newly-dyed purple locks, Drew was also faced with the task of persuading Woody that her singing was too awful even for the realistic voices he wanted from the movie. He gave in and Olivia Hayman sang Drew’s lines.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesJulia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has become another favourite of the director. She appeared in a minor role in Hannah And Her Sisters (her feature film debut in fact), impressing Woody enough for him to cast her as a lead in his 1997 flick Deconstructing Harry.
Number of Woody Movies: 2
Rex FeaturesDebra Messing
Even Debra Messing has popped up in a Woody creation, appearing in his 2002 film, Hollywood Ending. The movie failed to do well in the box office; it didn’t get a UK theatrical release and ticket sales were under $5m in the US, but it wasn’t a Hollywood Ending for Debra, whose TV show Will & Grace found mainstream success in the same year.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesRebecca Hall
Rebecca Hall played the memorably practical and down-to-earth Vicky in Woody’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, receiving a Golden Globe nomination in the process. The actress revealed that Woody made good use of any breaks in filming. “I was queuing for lunch one day, the buffet, and there was a line of parked cars on the curb next to where the queue was. And I happened to see that one of the cars was occupied and it was Woody’s car. He was sitting in the backseat with all the windows shut, just practising his clarinet quietly.”
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesDianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest was nearly re-cast in Bullets Over Broadway as neither she nor Woody Allen were happy with her performance as Helen Sinclair. Together they worked on the role and she went on to win an Oscar so they did something right. That said, the pair had already developed a good rapport on Hannah And Her Sisters (Diane had won an Oscar for that too) and Woody’s films The Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days and September.
Number of Woody Movies: 5
Rex FeaturesJennifer Tilly
Jennifer Tilly played a hopelessly bad actress in Bullets Over Broadway but the part couldn’t be further from the truth - Jennifer bagged herself an Oscar nomination. Woody Allen is known dislike his stars to ad-libing but he allowed Jennifer to because it suited her character in the movie.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesWinona Ryder
Winona Ryder appeared as part of an all-star cast in 1998’s Celebrity, after Drew Barrymore turned down her role. The director had wanted Winona again, along with Robert Downey Jr for 2004’s Melinda And Melinda, but he couldn’t get insurance in the wake of her shoplifting arrest and his drug abuse. “We were heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before [on Celebrity] and thought she was perfect for this and wanted to work with her again.”
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesCate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett bagged an Oscar for her first Woody role in Blue Jasmine. The Australian appeared as New York socialite, who falls from grace when her financier husband is exposed as a crook and is forced to seek solace with her (much poorer) sister Ginger.
Number of Woody Movies: 1
Rex FeaturesKristen Stewart
The Twilight is thought to have impressed Woody after her turns in Still Alice and Cloud of Sils Maria. She's slated to appear with Jesse Eisenberg and Bruce Willis in an as-yet-untitled flick.
Number of Woody Movies: 1 (possibly)
