Actor James Franco is back in the spotlight after being accused of sexual assault four years ago. Franco had stepped away from the spotlight for a while after being accused of inappropriate and sexually exploitative behaviour by five women.
According to rumours, Franco is scheduled to take on one of the key roles in the post-World War II coming-of-age drama ‘Me, You,’ directed by the Danish filmmaker Bille August and based on the Erri De Luca book ‘Tu, Mia.’ Tom Hollander and Daisy Jacob will also appear alongside Franco in the film, which will begin principal photography in Ischia in September.
Four of the five women who accused Franco of sexual harassment attended his acting school Studio 4, which was quickly shut down. In 2019, two of the students claimed in a lawsuit that the major purpose of the classes was to give Franco and his accomplices a method to exploit young ladies.
In order to settle the complaint, Franco and related organisations agreed to pay $2,235,000 in 2021.
Franco finally spoke out about the accusations of sexual assault made against him in December 2021.
On SiriusXM`s `The Jess Cagle` podcast, he addressed the allegations, confessing that he had slept with his students. ‘Look, I’ll admit I did sleep with students. I didn`t sleep with anybody in that particular class. But, over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students and that was wrong.’
He added, ‘But like I said, it`s not why I started the school and I wasn`t the person that selected the people to be in the class. So it was’t a ‘master plan’ on my part. But yes, there were certain instances where, you know what, I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn`t have been.’
Franco also discussed his extended period of silence. ‘In 2018, I received several complaints and was the subject of an article. And I simply decided to keep quiet at that point. I’m going to stop. It did not feel like the appropriate moment to speak. I needed to listen to the people who were angry with me, he said. Even his past drug use and sex addiction were brought up.’
The actor said, ‘Once I stopped using alcohol to sort of fill that hole, it was like, `Oh success, attention — this is great. And so, in a weird way, I got addicted to validation. It`s such a powerful drug. got hooked on it for 20 more years, and the insidious part of that is that I stayed sober from alcohol all that time. I went to meetings all that time. I even tried to sponsor other people. And so in my head, it was like, ‘Oh, I’m sober. I’m living a spiritual life.`Where on the side, I’m acting out now in all these other ways. And I couldn’t see it.’
‘I’m entirely blind to power dynamics or anything like that, but I’m also completely blind to people’s sentiments,’ he claimed.The Oscar nominee opened his acting school, Playhouse West Studio 4, in 2014 before it closed in 2017.
Post Your Comments