Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, 85, is facing allegations he “leered” at a 13-year-old girl and then kissed her on the set of his flop movie Megalopolis.
A witness has come forward to tell the Daily Beast he saw Coppola compliment the teenager on her outfit, ask how old she was, then kiss her, while filming in Fayetteville, Georgia, on Feb. 13 last year.
The accusation comes after video footage showing the Godfather director kissing extras on set was revealed by Variety. A female actress who was seen being kissed by Coppola said she was “in shock” at what happened, but kept her “mouth shut” at the time. Executive producer Darren Demetre defended the director, claiming the kissing was to “establish the spirit of the scene.” Coppola has filed a libel suit against Variety over the article’s claim he’d behaved unprofessionally and called the reporting “false, reckless and irresponsible.” He’s seeking $15 million in damages from the suit.
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A scene from Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis”
LionsgateThe frequently embattled production was self-financed by Coppola, who paid an estimated $120 million to make the film about an artist’s battle to create a utopian future in the face of greed, special interests, and political division.
Now a worker who was responsible for the welfare of child actors on set has told the Daily Beast that he watched Coppola kiss a minor in his charge, who appeared “shocked.” He also provided evidence that he reported the incident to his bosses, who appear to have done nothing about it.
Child labor coordinator Benjamin Cawood, 39, said that he saw Coppola kiss the girl. She “was just like ‘What?’—like big eyes, just kind of looking down, didn’t say anything,” he recalled.
Cawood, a married father of two who lives in Georgia, has also worked as a child labor coordinator and set teacher on other projects, including the TV series Stranger Things and Young Rock—jobs he took on after leaving his post in 2021 as a chemistry teacher in metro Atlanta. He was the coordinator for Megalopolis, which counts Adam Driver and Aubrey Plaza among its stars, during the Georgia shoot in February 2023 and had in his charge nine children aged between 9 and 14, according to a call sheet the Daily Beast has seen from the day in question.
Cawood does not recall the girl’s name and extras’ names are not listed on the call sheet. The Daily Beast was therefore unable to reach the girl and her mother to corroborate these events as described.
Not every actress kissed by Coppola in the leaked video footage was unhappy about it. One woman told Deadline Coppola “did nothing to make me or for that matter anyone on set feel uncomfortable.”
And a spokesperson for Coppola told the Daily Beast, “It has not gone unnoticed that for the fourth time another false, egregious allegation has conveniently been made in the media just prior to a major event on the Megalopolis premiere tour.” The first accusations against the director, as first published by The Guardian, were that Coppola kissed actresses without consent and pulled some into his lap. The second came in a Hollywood Reporter piece that claimed the production suffered a “mass exodus” of crew members due to “firings and resignations.”
The third set of accusations was made in a lawsuit from one of the film’s extras, Lauren Pagone, who alleged the director had also touched her body without her consent in addition to kissing her when she sued him last month for civil assault and battery. Cawood’s account of events makes four claims that Coppola is calling “totally untrue,” as he said the media is just “looking for some dirt,” he told Rolling Stone. His spokesperson echoed that sentiment.
“They are as unfounded now as they were prior to Cannes, TIFF, distinguished award announcements, and now Rome,” the spokesperson continued, “ We remain grateful to our cast and crew who have continued to show up, speak out and celebrate our collective, collaborative artistic achievement.”
They added, “Contrary to the prior false media reports, on the Megalopolis production there were multiple levels of guidelines and reporting channels concerning any claimed harassment, sexual or otherwise. There were no such claims reported at any time during the production.”
But according to Cawood, he reported the incident himself.
Cawood said that he saw Coppola surveying the set and getting a good look at the extras before filming the movie’s New Year’s Eve scene—and his young charge in particular, he claimed. “Everybody was dressed up very glamorously and [Coppola] seemed to be leering at the girl,” he said. “He actually said ‘Hey there,’ [and] complimented how she looked, [in] kind of innocent way basically because of the costumes—like, ‘It’s a great costume’ or something kind of general.” Coppola also told the girl she looked “like a bird,” Cawood recalled.
"Writer/Director Francis Ford Coppola and Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina in Megalopolis. Photo Credit: Phil Caruso"
Phil Caruso/LionsgateCawood said Coppola “then asked how old she was—but it was just kind of weird that he took interest in her,” since “she was literally the only person he sort of singled out.” Things would get “worse” after filming started though, he said. “Eventually [Coppola] was like, ‘Guys this is New Year’s Eve, it’s literally the one of those moments where you can just kiss somebody,’” Cawood said.
That’s when Coppola just started kissing people, Cawood said.
“There was an attractive thirtysomething extra and he was trying to encourage them, [so] he stood up and walked over and he kissed her,” he said. “I couldn’t tell from the angle if he kissed her on the mouth or on the cheek. But then immediately went to the [13-year-old] girl and kissed her.” That kiss was on the cheek, Cawood said.
“I was having a hard time processing it,” he continued. “I could just imagine being in her shoes. I thought—that might have literally been the first time somebody that’s not in that girl’s family has kissed her,” Cawood said, recalling that the director then “turned and kissed some man on the cheek.”
A scene from Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis”
LionsgateCawood was uncomfortable enough about what he’d witnessed that he first reported the incident to the girl’s mother. “She was off in the stage area” when it happened, Cawood said. “I found her mom and I said, ‘I just want you to know, the director just kissed her.’ And she said ‘Yeah, my daughter told me.’ I was like, ‘OK, because it just didn’t feel right and I wanted you to know what happened.’” He didn’t get much reaction from her at the time, however.
Cawood also reported the incident that same day to his employer, an “educational consulting service” for entertainment productions called On Location Education (OLE). Cawood supplied that email complaint to the Daily Beast.
“[Coppola] definitely knew the girl is a minor, because only moments before this happened he had asked her her age and made some comment about her costume,” Cawood wrote in the email after describing the alleged incident. He also noted the incident “didn’t immediately jump out as obvious sexual harassment,” but he’d thought enough of it to seek “advice” from the company. An associate director at OLE responded to the email, stating they would “speak with HR about the proper way to handle this”—but Cawood said he never heard back.
On Location Education’s CEO, Alan Simon, told the Daily Beast: “At the forefront of our mission is a concern for the minors’ well-being on the set and a commitment to protecting their privacy, safety, and security. For this reason, we do not comment on any circumstances relating to minors involved in a production.”
Months later, Cawood saw reporting about other kissing incidents on the Megalopolis set and was shocked to read executive producer Demetre’s comment that he was “never aware of any complaints of harassment or ill behavior during the course of the project” regarding Coppola’s behavior.
“I was like bulls--t,” Cawood said he thought after reading the comment. His only conclusion was somebody must not be telling the truth. “Either OLE didn’t actually contact production,” he added, or the production was mistaken when they claimed they weren’t aware of any complaints. “I know I tried to do what I needed to do.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a full statement from Francis Ford Coppola’s spokesperson.
