Photo via imdb.com/Woody Allen on the set of 'Irrational Man'
Photo via imdb.com/Woody Allen on the set of ‘Irrational Man’

Since the announcement of Amazon’s deal with Woody Allen, the talk has been whether this was a stroke of genius, or setting up the mega online retailer for a spectacular failure.

In this interview with Deadline, it might be looking more like a fail at this point. Allen was candid about how unprepared and overwhelmed he is by this Amazon series challenge.

“I have regretted every second since I said OK,” Allen told Deadline. “It’s been so hard for me. I had the cocky confidence, well, I’ll do it like I do a movie…it’ll be a movie in six parts. Turns out, it’s not. For me, it has been very, very difficult. I’ve been struggling and struggling and struggling. I only hope that when I finally do it — I have until the end of 2016 — they’re not crushed with disappointment because they’re nice people and I don’t want to disappoint them.”

allen-woodyAllen talked to Deadline to promote his latest movie, Irrational Man, in advance of its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. According to the story, “he doesn’t own a computer or understand what a streaming service is; all he knows is, he regrets a deal that has taken him out of his comfort zone.”

In the lengthy Q&A, Allen’s comments regarding Amazon come toward the end, where he also admits that he doesn’t watch acclaimed cable series like The Sopranos or Mad Men, and that Amazon wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. 

“Amazon kept coming to me and saying, please do this, whatever you want,” Allen continues in the Deadline interview. “I kept saying I have no ideas for it, that I never watch television. I don’t know the first thing about it. Well, this went on for a year and a half, and they kept making a better deal and a better deal. Finally they said look, we’ll do anything that you want, just give us six half hours…And they offered a lot of money and everybody around me was pressuring me, go ahead and do it, what do you have to lose?”

He concludes the Amazon section with this thought: “I haven’t had a pleasurable moment since I undertook it.”

Of course, not everyone is thrilled that Allen got such a lucrative deal anyway, especially because of the allegations of abuse from his family.

Irrational Man comes out July 17. His Amazon series? Stay tuned.

In the meantime, watch the trailer for Irrational Man below:

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