Woody Allen has said he feels “sad” for Harvey Weinstein as women in Hollywood continue to come forward with allegations of sexual assault against the producer.

Allen claimed he had heard rumours about Weinstein but not “these horror stories”.

Despite working with Weinstein on a number of films, the director said he had never heard about any allegations of rape or sexual assault.

“No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness,” Allen told the BBC. “And they wouldn’t, because you are not interested in it. You are interested in making your movie.

“But you do hear a million fanciful rumours all the time. And some turn out to be true and some – many – are just stories about this actress, or that actor.”

Harvey Weinstein: The celebrities who have accused him of sexual misconduct so far

The Midnight In Paris director has faced his own sexual abuse claims; being accused of molesting his adopted daughter. Allen has always strongly denied the claims.

Weinstein was credited with helping Allen revive his career after he was accused of abusing Dylan Farrow, his daughter with actress Mia Farrow.

The allegation emerged in the early 1990s after the couple separated, after Mia Farrow discovered that Allen was having an affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.

“The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved,” he added. “Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that is life is so messed up.

“There’s no winners in that, it’s just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that.”

Allen said he hoped the revelations, which emerged after an investigation by The New York Times, would lead to “some amelioration”.

“You also don’t want it to lead to a witch-hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself,” he added.

“That’s not right either. But sure, you hope that something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation.”

Allen’s son Ronan Farrow was one of the journalists who spoke to Weinstein’s accusers, interviewing 13 women for The New Yorker who said the producer had sexually harassed or assaulted them.

Weinstein, 65, insists any sexual contacts he had were consensual.

His spokeswoman Sallie Hofmeister said earlier this week: “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein.”