Adrien Brody downplayed the allegations of sexual abuse that have been made against Woody Allen and Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanski's rape conviction in a recent interview.

The Oscar-winning actor was a guest on Dirty, Sexy, Funny with Jenny McCarthy on Monday when the host asked him about working with both Allen and Polanski in the wake of a joke French comedian Laurent Lafitte made about the two men last week.

'Life is very complicated,' said Brody. 'I look to collaborate with artistic people and to go into an endeavor without judgment and to hopefully be treated with the same.

'It's an artistic pursuit, and Polanski for instance had a very complicated and difficult life.

'It would be unfair of me to delve into something as complicated as the past that was brought up in the media.'

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Speaking out: Adrien Brody defended his decision to work with directors Roman Polanski and Woody Allen in an interview on Monday (above)

Reason: 'I look to collaborate with artistic people and to go into an endeavor without judgment and to hopefully be treated with the same,' said Brody (l to r: Brody, Owen Wilson, Lea Seydoux, Woody Allen, Frederic Mitterrand, Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen at the 2011 premiere of Midnight In Paris at Cannes)

Sex offender: Polanski (above with brody at the 2003 Cesar Awards) was convicted of rape in 1977 after admitting to having sex with a 13-year-old girl, fled the country a year later and is remains a fugitive

McCarthy went on to ask Brody if he believed that there should be a separation between the personal and professional lives of these directors, to which he replied; 'Well, to a certain extent. I mean, again, people make mistakes in lives.'

The conversation then turned to Bill Cosby, who unlike Allen has watched his career be destroyed by allegations of rape.

'I don't even read about these things, to be honest I choose not to indulge this kind of fodder,' said Brody.

'I think there's a lot of catastrophe in this world and a lot of cruelty and a lot of carelessness.

'Of course it's horrible what comes out sometimes, and people have done things in their lives that may be inexcusable, but it's not something to focus on.'

It was at the premiere of Allen's Cafe Society during the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday that Lafitte compared Allen and Polanski in a joke, saying to the American director: 'You’ve shot so many of your films here in Europe and yet in the U.S. you haven’t even been convicted of rape.'

The comment seemed to be more aimed at Polanski, who is a fugitive from the United States after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a minor following a 1977 incident.

The director admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old girl and served 42 days in prison, but after his release a judge rejected his plea deal and he fled to Paris in early 1978 where he continues to live before he could be sentenced to more time behind bars.

There have been attempts to extradite him since but they have all failed

He has continued to work steadily overseas since then, and even won a Best Director Oscar for his film The Pianist in 2003. Brody also won in the Best Actor category.

Nine years later, Brody worked with Allen for the first time, playing the role of Salvador Dalí in Midnight In Paris.

Statement: 'People have done things in their lives that may be inexcusable, but it's not something to focus on,' said Brody of Allen and Bill Cosby (above at a court hearing in February)

Winners: Both Polanski and Brody won Oscars for The Pianist (Brody above in a still from the film)

Recent role: Brody worked with Allen, who was accused of molesting his 7-year-old daughter, on the 2011 film Midnight In Paris (above in still from the film)

Brody is not the only star to defend their decision to work with Allen, with Kristen Stewart doing the same in an interview last week before the premiere of Cafe Society.

The 26-year-old actress, who shot to fame with the Twilight series, said she spoke with her co-star Jesse Eisenberg before she took the job, having known him from their work on the films Adventureland and American Ultra.

'I was like, "What do you think? We don’t know any of these people involved. I can personalize situations, which would be very wrong,"' said Stewart in an interview with Variety.

'At the end of the day, Jesse and I talked about this. If we were persecuted for the amount of s*** that’s been said about us that’s not true, our lives would be over.

'The experience of making the movie was so outside of that, it was fruitful for the two of us to go on with it.'

The interview came as Allen's estranged son lashed out at actors who choose to work with the director.

Dream team: Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively both defended their decisions to appear in Allen's new film Cafe Society in recent interviews (above on Wednesday night at the Cannes Film Festival)

Angered: Their interviews came as Allen's estranged son Ronan Farrow (above in April 2015) lashed out at actors who choose to work with the director

Ronan Farrow chided those who work with Allen in an essay he wrote for The Hollywood Reporter.

'Actors, including some I admire greatly, continue to line up to star in his movies. "It's not personal," one once told me,' wrote Farrow.

'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.'

He went on to write: 'Tonight, the Cannes Film Festival kicks off with a new Woody Allen film. There will be press conferences and a red-carpet walk by my father and his wife (my sister).

'He'll have his stars at his side — Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg. They can trust that the press won't ask them the tough questions.

'It's not the time, it's not the place, it's just not done.'

Farrow's essay came one week after a cover story on the acclaimed auteur in the same magazine