Speaking at a panel discussing women’s issues in the film industry, where she was appearing alongside her ‘Thelma and Louise’ co-star Geena Davis, she said that she believes that the Hollywood director had ‘sexually assaulted a child and I don’t think that is right’.

When Sarandon was asked about Allen, she said: “I have nothing good to say about Woody Allen, so I don’t think we should go there. I think he sexually assaulted a child and I don’t think that’s right … It’s gotten very quiet in here, but that’s true.”

Last week, Allen’s son Ronan Farrow wrote a column about the abuse case, which dates back to the early 1990s.

“I believe my sister. This was always true as a brother who trusted her, and, even at 5 years old, was troubled by our father’s strange behavior around her: climbing into her bed in the middle of the night, forcing her to suck his thumb — behavior that had prompted him to enter into therapy focused on his inappropriate conduct with children prior to the allegations.”

He also accused the actors who continue to work with his father, writing: “Actors, including some I admire greatly, continue to line up to star in his movies. ‘It’s not personal,’ one once told me. But it hurts my sister every time one of her heroes like Louis C.K., or a star her age, like Miley Cyrus, works with Woody Allen”.

“Personal is exactly what it is – for my sister, and for women everywhere with allegations of sexual assault that have never been vindicated by a conviction.”

Allen described the accusations ‘ludicrous’ and repeated that his daughter had been ‘coached’ by his ex-wife Mia.

Allen’s publicist Leslee Dart said: “a thorough investigation was conducted by court-appointed independent experts’ at the time,” adding that “The experts concluded there was no credible evidence of molestation; that Dylan Farrow had an inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality; and that Dylan Farrow had likely been coached by her mother Mia Farrow,”.