Actor James Franco accused of ‘exploitative sexual behaviour’ and ‘exposing himself’

Two actresses have accused actor James Franco of inappropriate and exploitative sexual behaviour.

Their reason for coming forward was spurred on by the fact that Franco was one of the celebrities at the Golden Globes wearing the Times Up pin, a campaign against sexual misconduct within Hollywood. The movement was founded in 2018 following the Weinstein controversy. Actress Violet Paley took to Twitter to call out Franco for wearing the pin as she says he once exposed himself to her and asked her 17-year-old friend back to a hotel room. https://twitter.com/VioletPaley/status/950252181965410304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw   Another actress, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, also commented on Franco's pin, reminding him of an incident in his acting classes where he asked her to do nude scenes for minimum pay. https://twitter.com/sarahtk/status/950165990213496832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw   A third actress, Ally Sheedy, also Tweeted about Franco but later took them down. While she never made any direct accusations she was very negative towards the actor. Franco subsequently appeared on Stephen Colbert's show where he was asked why he wore the pin:

"Well, first I wanna say I wore it because I do support it. I was… Look, I was so excited to win, but being in that room that night was incredible. I mean, it was powerful, and there were incredible voices, and I support it. I support change, and I support 50/50 in 2020, which just means that people that are underrepresented—women, and people of color, and people in the LGBT community—get, you know, positions, leadership positions, and they fill all positions that they’ve been deprived of. I completely believe in that. That’s why I wore it.”

Stephen then asked about the allegations made against him on Twitter and he said:

"There were some things on Twitter, um, I haven’t read them. I’ve heard about them. OK, first of all, I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy. I directed her in a play off-Broadway. I had nothing but a great time with her, total respect for her. I have no idea why she was upset. She took the tweet down. I don’t know. I can’t speak for her… I don’t know. The others, look, in my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things I’ve done. I have to do that to maintain my well-being. I do it whenever I know that there’s something wrong that 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, so I don’t want to shut them down in any way. I think it’s a good thing, and I support it."

However, James Franco has denied the allegations against him during an appearance on The Late Show with Colbert. "I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy,” Franco said. “I directed her in a play off Broadway. I had nothing but a great time with her and I have total respect for her. Franco continued by telling Colbert the sexual assault claims on Twitter were 'not accurate'.