James Franco accused by five women of sexually inappropriate behaviour
US actor James Franco has been accused of sexually inappropriate behaviour days after he scooped Best Actor at the Golden Globes.
Five women, including former students at his Studio 4 acting school in New York, have made allegations against the Disaster Artist actor, with one claiming he removed plastic guards covering actresses’ genitals during oral sex scenes.
Franco sparked criticism for wearing a Time’s Up badge in support of the movement against sexual harassment at Sunday night’s awards ceremony, with actresses Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Violet Paley tweeting their disgust at his win.
Paley, who dated Franco in 2016, has now accused the actor of pressuring her into performing oral sex on him.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times she said: “I was talking to him, all of a sudden his penis was out. I got really nervous, and I said, ‘Can we do this later?’ He was kind of nudging my head down, and I just didn’t want him to hate me, so I did it.” She said she stopped the act by claiming to see someone.
Tither-Kaplan claimed Franco would often engage in an “abuse of power” on film sets which she said bred a “culture of exploiting non-celebrity women, and a culture of women being replaceable”.
She also accused him of continuing to stimulate sex acts on actresses on the set of The Long Home after removing the plastic guards from their vaginas.
Hilary Dusome and Natalie Chmiel, who were taught by Franco at Playhouse West in North Hollywood, accused him of becoming “visibly angry” when all the women at a shoot refused to be topless.
“He just took advantage of our eagerness to work and be a part of something bigger,” Chmiel said. “We were all these up-and-coming actors who were so hopeful.”
Franco’s attorney Michael Plonsker disputed Dusome and Chimiel’s claims. He also branded Paley and Tither-Kaplan’s accusations as “not accurate” and pointed to Franco’s previous denial of all the women’s allegations on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Speaking to the US chat show host after his Golden Globe win, Franco said: “Look, in my life, I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I’ve done. I have to do that to maintain my well-being. I do it whenever I know that there is something wrong or needs to be changed, I make it a point to do it.
“The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long.
“I don’t want to, you know, shut them down in any way. It’s, I think, a good thing and I support it.”
Standard Online has contacted a representative for Franco for comment.
