Javier Bardem defends Woody Allen over sexual assault allegations

Los Angeles: Javier Bardem says he does not approve of Woody Allen's "public lynching" in the child sexual assault allegations that have resurfaced over the past years against the filmmaker.

The 49-year-old actor, who worked with Allen in 2007's "Vicky Christina Barcelona", said he collaborate with the director in a heartbeat if he called him.

"At the time I did 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', the allegations were already well known for more than 10 years, and two states in the US deemed he was not guilty.

"If the legal situation ever changes, then I'd change my mind. But for now I don't agree with the public lynching that he's been receiving, and if Woody Allen called me to work with him again I'd be there tomorrow morning. He's a genius," Bardem said.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor was speaking at the Lumiere Festival in Lyon Tuesday.

Dylan Farrow, Allen's adopted daughter with former wife Mia Farrow, accused the director of sexually abusing her in the early 1990s while she was a child.

She reiterated her claims in a 2014 New York Times op-ed and other articles.

The allegations caught steam in the wake of the #MeToo uprising.

Last month, Allen's wife Soon-Yi Previn broke her decades-long silence over claims against her husband, calling them "unjust" and said that her adoptive mother Mia had "taken advantage of the #MeToo movement"