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Actor James Franco is the most recent hollywood star to have sexual assault allegations made towards him. According to the L.A. Times, Franco has 5 women currently accusing him of sexual misconduct. Four of the women were students of Franco, and the other woman he mentored.
After winning for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy for his role as Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist, one actress fired off angry tweets about the actors winning. Ally Sheedy, who Franco worked with in 2014 on the play The Long Shrift. At one point, Sheedy called Franco “a beautiful, generous man,” but after tweeting during the Golden Globes, “James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business,” it seems there relationship may have changed.
During a recent interview, Franco was asked if he had a reply to the tweets, to which he said, “the ones I read were not accurate.” But he did add that even though him and Sheedy had a great relationship, he has not reached out to her to see why she would tweet those untrue things.
Tither-Kaplan, one of the 5 women accusing Franco, says during the filming of a nude orgy scene, Franco “removed protective plastic guards covering the actresses’ vaginas while simulating oral sex on them.”
Two other women who were students, said Franco became angry on set when no women would agree to do topless scenes. The women thought the opportunity would be a great experience until it turned out to be an “unprofessional and hostile shoot at a strip club,” for which one felt she was only picked for her nice breast.
“I felt like I was selected for something based on my hard work and my merit, and when I realized it was because I have nice [breasts], it was pretty clear that was not the case,” said Hilary Dusome, a Franco student from 2012. “I don’t think he started teaching with bad intentions, but he went down a bad path and damaged a lot of people in the process.”
Some said they felt “Franco could offer them career advancement, and acquiesced to his wishes even when they were uncomfortable.”
Franco told Stepen Colbert during a recent visit to “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “If I have done something wrong, I will fix it — I have to.”
This is not the first time Franco has been in the spotlight for controversial behavior. In 2014, he was blasted for talking to a 17-year-old girl on Instagram, even after learning her age.
Written by Clarke Jones