Francis Ford Coppola Denies Inappropriate Behavior

Francis Ford Coppola has addressed the allegations that he made advances with actresses on the set of “Megalopolis.”

In a report last month by The Guardian, multiple anonymous crew members said Coppola behaved inappropriately amid production. Now, during an hour-long interview Coppola gave to Manohla Dargis of the The New York Times during the Cannes Film Festival, the filmmaker denied the allegations in a roundabout way. In part, Coppola pointed to how he was raised and the morals he learned from his mother, Italia Coppola.

“My mother told me that if you make an advance toward a woman, it means you disrespect her, and the girls I had crushes on, I certainly didn’t disrespect them,” Coppola said.

As the New York Times wrote, “Pressed further, he added that there was a photo of one of the ‘girls’ he kissed on the cheek that had been taken by her father. ‘I knew her when she was 9,’” Coppola said.

A source confirmed to IndieWire the woman referred to worked as an extra on the “Megalopolis” set.

Coppola added to The New York Times, “I’m not touchy-feely. I’m too shy.”

The May 14 report in the The Guardian stated: “Several sources also felt that Coppola could be ‘old school’ in his behavior around women. He allegedly pulled women to sit on his lap, for example. And during one bacchanalian nightclub scene being shot for the film, witnesses say, Coppola came on to the set and tried to kiss some of the topless…