Why Did Woody Allen's Wife Soon-Yi Previn Call Timothée Chalamet a 'Prick' in Emails to Jeffrey Epstein?

It's another day of another revelation from the Epstein files. Unseen emails involving members of Woody Allen's family have surfaced. A particular conversation includes a 2018 message in which Allen's wife, Soon-Yi Previn, used a derogatory term to describe actor Timothée Chalamet.

The correspondence surfaced as part of a massive document release by the US Department of Justice in early February.

Epstein, who died in 2019, was a convicted sex offender whose network included political figures, financiers, and individuals connected to the entertainment industry. Woody Allen, one of the most controversial filmmakers in Hollywood, was a very close friend of Epstein.

What This Particular Email Says

According to reports, one 2018 email shows Previn, often called by critics as 'Allen's grooming victim, not his wife,' forwarding a film review to Epstein that referenced Hot Summer Nights, a crime drama starring Chalamet.

In the message, Previn added a personal remark expressing satisfaction that the film had received a poor review and referred to Chalamet as a 'prick.'

The email does not allege misconduct by Chalamet, nor does it suggest any direct interaction between him and Epstein. Instead, it appears as part of an ongoing personal correspondence in which Previn shared opinions about media coverage and public figures.

Why Timothée Chalamet Was Mentioned

The reference to Chalamet is widely understood in the context of his involvement in Woody Allen's film A Rainy Day in New York. The movie was completed in 2018 but faced distribution delays amid renewed yet longstanding allegations against Allen.

When the controversy resurfaced, Chalamet publicly distanced himself from the project. He announced that he would donate his salary from the film to several organisations, including Time's Up, RAINN, and the LGBT Centre in New York.

That decision was widely discussed at the time and positioned Chalamet as one of several actors seeking to publicly distance themselves from Allen's work. This particular event was also present in another set of emails in the Epstein Files.

According to an email from Peggy Siegel to Epstein dated 27 January 2018, Chalamet's name appeared in a conversation about Woody Allen and the MeToo controversy.

Siegel writes, 'Even my friend Timothée Chalamet, who donated his salary from Woody's last film to THREE political agencies, was sick about being forced into any action by the press. He could not go anyplace on his "Call Me By Your Name" Oscar campaign without the press hounding him about working with Woody.'

This was the time when the social and investigative tension clouded over Allen. His family faced heightened criticism during the #MeToo movement.

The Complicated History of Allen and Previn's Marriage

Previn's presence in these conversations becomes more controversial given the history of her relationship with her husband, Woody Allen. Previn is the adoptive daughter of Allen's long-term partner, Mia Farrow, making Allen a father figure to Previn.

However, both began a romantic relationship in 1991, when Previn was 21, and Allen was 56. Later, the affair was discovered in 1992, leading to a major scandal and eventually their marriage on 23 December 1997.

The controversial age gap and a series of allegations made by his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, with Mia have always kept Allen and Previn's relationship under the radar. Allen's close ties with Epstein, who was himself a paedophile, have brought back even broader attention to his family.