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Indiana Jones star Karen Allen clears up confusion over 'predatory' Indy

American actor Harrison Ford and actress Karen Allen on the set of
Karen Allen starred with Harrison Ford in Raiders Of The Lost Ark in 1981. (Corbis via Getty Images)

Raiders Of The Lost Ark star Karen Allen has defended Indiana Jones against claims of "sinister undertones" in her character's romance with the action hero.

The 69-year-old actor played Marion Ravenwood in the 1981 film alongside Harrison Ford as Jones, who it is implied had a romantic relationship with her character when she was "a child".

Allen told Uproxx: “I don’t think of him as a paedophile. That’s the direction some of these people are going.”

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When Indiana arrives at Marion's bar, she punches him, saying: "I’ve learned to hate you in the last 10 years. I was a child! I was in love! It was wrong and you knew it... Do you know what you did to me? To my life?”

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 08: Karen Allen attends the 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 08, 2020 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Karen Allen played Marion Ravenwood in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. (Getty Images)

Allen was asked if she thought her lines implied the past relationship between her character and Indie had "sinister undertones".

She said: "I guess you could say that. 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. 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.

LOS ANGELES - JUNE 12: The movie: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark , (aka:
Karen Allen has shrugged off speculation of sinister undertones to Indiana Jones' relationship with Marion in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. (CBS via Getty Images)

"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. When something is as vague as that, you can colour it any way you want to colour it. I’ve tended to colour it, sort of, that it was quite innocent.

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"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.”

LOS ANGELES - JUNE 12: The movie: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark , (aka:
Karen Allen and Harrison Ford in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. (CBS via Getty Images)

Raiders Of The Lost Ark is being rereleased on 4K Blu-ray and will be available to stream on Amazon Prime from 24 July, along with the other Indiana Jones movies.

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