The actress, who portrayed Indiana's love interest Marion Ravenwood in 1981's 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', is aware there are sinister undertones in the characters' romance.
- Jun 10, 2021
AceShowbiz - Karen Allen has finally spoken out about the controversial age gap between her character and Harrison Ford's in "Raiders Of The Lost Ark". The Marion Ravenwood depicter, who stars as Indiana Jones' love interest in the 1981 movie, believed that Indiana is not a "pedophile."
For the record, Marion punches Indiana in the reunion scene and says, "I've learned to hate you in the last 10 years." After he explains that he never meant to hurt her, she hits back, "I was a child! I was in love! It was wrong and you knew it." Indiana then responded, "You knew what you were doing."
Marion's ambiguous line left some viewers thinking that Indiana is a pedophile. The film itself did not provide any context for the conversation in the scene, prompting viewers to wonder what happened between the pair and how old they were in the movie.
The 69-year-old actress addressed the matter in a recent interview with Uproxx while promoting the movie's 40th anniversary 4K Blu-ray release. "I don't think of him as a pedophile," she stressed. "That's the direction some of these people are going."
Karen acknowledged that there are sinister undertones in Marion and Indiana's romantic relationship. She went on explaining, "I think I say I was 16. I don't know. That's always what I imagined is she was 16, he was 26. And he was her father's student. And it's left very mysterious."
"We don't even know what it is. I mean, they could have kissed a few times, and she was just completely bowled over, and he could have just not wanted to get involved with someone so young. And maybe my father would have been furious at him," she added. "I mean, what's great about it is we don't know what the circumstances are. So she obviously cared deeply for him. He may have cared for her, too. But, in the end, decided it was a dangerous situation and he didn't want to be involved."
"I mean, I guess, when something is as vague as that, you can color it any way you want to color it," the ex-wife of Kale Browne further elaborated. "I've tended to color it, sort of, that it was quite innocent. When she says, 'It was wrong and you knew it.' I mean, I think maybe he led her on in some way. But when she says she was a child, I think she meant she was 16. Something like that."
