He was one of the most promising actors in Hollywood, but allegations of harassment and abuse tarnished his image. With no job offers, the two-time Golden Globe winner stars in and directs his own film projects
James Franco reappeared last year after a long time away from the press due to allegations of sexual harassment against him (Getty Images)
The career of James Franco, nominated for the Oscar in 2011 for the movie “127 hours”, was overshadowed by a series of accusations of sexual harassment and abuse. Not only has the industry turned its back on him, but he has even met colleagues and close friends like Seth Rogen denying him. His last film project was a film he directed and starred in entitled “The long Home” because in Hollywood nobody wants to hire him.
Before the industry began to distance himself from him, the Californian starred in or participated in box office hits such as the “Spider Man” trilogy, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, “The Protector”, “ 127 Hours” or the acclaimed HBO series “The Deuce”.
The actor has shown his enthusiasm for the arts in general such as painting and literature. He dedicated much of his time away from the filming set to consolidate a prolific academic career attending the most prestigious universities in the United States. Few know but he has a doctorate in English Philology from Yale University and a postgraduate degree in literature from Columbia University. Painting, writing poems and reading are some of his great passions, he made it very clear in an article published in The New York Times.
In 2014, the actor published his first book of poetry , entitled “Directing Herbert White”, in which he dedicates verses to dead actors such as Marlon Brando, James Dean, Heath Ledger or River Phoenix. In an interview, he stated that painting was the “escape” he needed during his high school years and that in fact “he has been painting longer than acting.”
The fall from grace
The fall from grace of James Franco (AP)
It was James Franco’s breakout performance in the 2001 biographical TV movie about James Dean that brought critics to their feet and took notice. His portrayal of the legendary actor earned him the Golden Globe in 2002. Franco later said that he prepared for the role by smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.
Also in 2002, Franco took on the role of Harry Osborne, son of the villainous Green Goblin, in “Spider-Man.”The Californian returned to play the character in the next two installments of the film franchise: “Spider-Man 2″ (2004) and “Spider-Man 3″ (2007).
Y He earned acclaim in 2006 for his portrayal of aviator Blaine Rawlings in the movie “Flyboys.” To play the role, Franco had to obtain a pilot’s license.
But Franco’s rising career took a surprising 180 degree turn. When he was reaching the top for his work in “The Disaster Artist” and even dreamed of taking the Oscar, his image took a radical turn when in the #MeToo explosion several women came out to report having been victims of sexual harassment by the actor.
The same night he received his second Golden Globe in January 2018 for his role in “The Disaster Artist”, a great scandal was brewing on social networks. It all started when Franco appeared on the red carpet of the big Hollywood event with a pin from the Time’s Up movement in support of all women victims of sexual violence.
James Franco was accused of sexual harassment by several actresses after seeing him receive his Golden Globe wearing the Time’s Up pin (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)
During the ceremony, Several actresses charged on social networks against the alleged hypocrisy of the actor for wearing one of those badges, since they claimed that he had been responsible for episodes of sexual abuse and harassment in the past.< /p>
Violet Paley was one of those who posted on Twitter that Franco had forced her to have sex with him and invited her 17-year-old friend to his hotel room. “Nice pin #Timesup James Franco. Do you remember the time you lowered my head to your naked penis in a car?, Paley wrote on the social network, minutes after Franco received the award. The message triggered a series of serious accusations against the actor
Hey James Franco nice #Timesup pin at the Golden Globes remember a few weeks ago when you told me my full nudity in two of your $100 a day movies was not exploitation because I signed a contract? Your time is up!”, reacted Sarah Tither-Kaplan, actress of “The Long Home”, a film directed by and starring Franco.
Then it was Ally Sheedy‘s turn, who worked with Franco on the play “The Long Shrift: “James Franco just won. Please never ask me why I left the film and television industry. Christian Slater and James Franco at a Golden Globes presentation. #MeToo”, wrote the actress, known for the movie “The Five Club”.
Two weeks later, Vanity Fair magazine removed Franco from its cover.
James Franco filming scenes from “The Deuce” in April 2019 (Photo by Say Cheese!/GC Images)
Busy Philipps, known for “Dawson’s Creek”,< b> assured that Franco is a “fucking bully” and accused him of physically assaulting her on the set of the series, “Freaks and Geeks ”, in 1999.
In an excerpt from his memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little, Philipps says that the director told him to gently hit Franco in the chest while he was filming a scene for the show, but the winner of two Golden Globes was annoyed with her and exploded with fury: “He took me by both arms and he yelled in my face ‘Never touch me again!’ And he threw me to the ground ”.
Franco insisted that he had not done anything inappropriate against any of his colleagues. In public defense of him on the Stephen Colbert show, he said: “The things I’ve heard that are on Twitter are not accurate. The way I live my life, I can’t live if there’s a pending restitution. If I did something wrong, I’ll fix it. I have to.”
However, in an article published by The Los Angeles Timesin January 2018, five other women accused the actor of inappropriate behavior or sexual exploitation. Former students of Franco’s acting classes described situations in which they were asked to take off their clothes or participated in uncomfortable sex scenes. One of the victims, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, denounced that the actor “abused his power by exploiting non-famous women with whom he worked under the pretext of giving them opportunities.”
They denounced that Franco and other instructors forced their female students to perform increasingly explicit sexual scenes on camera that went far beyond what was acceptable on a Hollywood set. As an example, the students indicated that Franco promoted the alleged filming of an orgy in which he removed the plastic protections that covered the women’s vaginas before simulating oral sex.
At the time, the actor responded to his former students’ accusations by claiming they were “hungry for attention”. Franco opened his theater school, Studio 4, in Los Angeles in 2014 and closed its doors in 2017 following allegations against him. In June of last year, the actor agreed to pay 2.3 million dollars to two of his accusers.
Although the truth is that the first accusations of The harassment of Franco dates back to 2014, when a young woman accused the actor of writing to her on Instagram looking to meet up. She was a 17-year-old girl who had asked her for a selfie at the exit of Franco’s play on Broadway. After asking him to tag him in the post, the actor contacted her privately, offering to book her a hotel room.
The girl made the messages public and, faced with the possible scandal, Franco defended himself on the TV show Howard Stern saying that he had simply been “a gentleman”. However, in that year, even in pre-MeToo Hollywood, this was overlooked.
In fact, Seth Rogen , at that time a close friend of Franco, even he frivolized the harassment by claiming on Saturday Night Live that he posed as a teenager to trick the actor. “I decided to prank James Franco. I posed as a girl on Instagram, I told him that he was very young. He seemed unfazed. I have an appointment to meet him at the Ace Hotel”, he said at the time.
Years later, Rogen apologized and said he would never work again with him.
Admission and confession
James Franco assured that he is addicted to sex and acknowledged that he slept with his students (Getty Images)
“I’ll admit it, I slept with those students”, Franco said in December 2021.
Finally the actor accepted his past mistakes. He admitted that he thought having sex with students at his acting school was acceptable because it was an “agreed” act between adults, but denied sexually exploiting them.
“During the time I taught, I slept with my students and it was wrong,” acknowledged the actor on The Jess Cagle Show, broadcast on the SiriusXM radio platform. “I guess at the time, my thinking was if it was consensual, that’s fine.”
“I didn’t want to hurt anyone,” Franco said. , 43, in the interview. “In 2018, there were some complaints about me and at the time I thought I had to keep quiet. I had to pause. It didn’t seem like the right time to say anything. There were people who were upset with me and needed to listen ”, he continued in his release.
In the interview, Franco denied having slept with students in his class called “Sex Scenes”, and said that it was a “provocative title”, but that it did not include specific instruction on intimate scenes.
“It wasn’t a master plan on my part,” he said. “But, yes, there were some moments in which I had something consensual with a student, and I shouldn’t have done it”, he stressed.
Likewise, the actor also said he had go to therapy to treat his sex addiction, a problem with which he claims he covered up his alcoholism.”The attention of women, the success among women, also became an important source of validation for me. The problem was that, as with any drug, it’s never enough”, he explained.
“I used my experience to change who I was”, added the actor, who He also acknowledged that prior to his current relationship with Isabel Pakzad, “he was never able to be faithful to anyone.”
An elevator with Amber Heard
Amber Heard in an elevator with James Franco
Franco was among the famous names to testify in the scandalous trial currently unfolding in a Virginia court , USA, between the actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
Depp is convinced that Heard was unfaithful to him with Franco in the 15 months that the marriage lasted and their lawyers decided to revive material that would confirm the affair.
Depp’s lawyers showed video from the building’s elevator security cameras at trial showing Franco arriving at Heard’s penthouse in the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles around 10:50 p.m. on May 22, 2016.
In the images, Franco, who is wearing a hat and carrying a backpack, rests his head on Heard’s shoulder and she appears to place her head on his actor. Afterward, they exit the elevator together. On the stand,The actress acknowledged for the first time that the night before asking her then-husband for a divorce, she was with the actor in his apartment.
James Franco and Amber Heard (Getty Images)
However, Heard denied that she had an affair with Franco. But she did accept that she found in him someone to talk about marital problems with Depp. “He was my friend. And he lived next door, ”she told Depp’s lawyer, Camille Vasquez, during the trial.
Days ago, Heard accused Depp of slapping and kicking her on a plane while drunk, after accusing her of having an affair with Franco. “ I felt embarrassed” , she told the jury. “He hated, hated James Franco and accused me of having had a secret thing with him ever since we did Pineapple Express,” she said, referring to the 2008 film in which Heard worked with Franco . “He called me a whore”, assured the actress.
Franco has never spoken publicly about his relationship with Heard and was ultimately removed from the list of witnesses at trial.< /p>
It was not the only recording about the actor that left him exposed.
Franco and actress Marla Sokolooff began an affair on the set of the 2000 film “ Whatever It Takes”. However, it all ended for them in 2004, but their romance followed them until 2013 when sexually explicit material of the couple was leaked.
Franco explained to radio host Howard Stern that the video was an “innocent” thing between the two and should never have been made public.
Marla Sokoloff and James Franco (Photo by Chris Polk/FilmMagic)
In 2015, Franco was linked to the American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, although their relationship was never confirmed. However, the couple posted selfies together on their respective Instagram accounts. They even say he wrote a poem about her.
It was also rumored that he had a relationship with Lindsay Lohan . Franco wrote a short story for Vice called “Bungalow 89 ″ in which he tells the story of how the actress came to her room at the famous Chateau Marmont hotel alone one night in 2011 to have sex.
“There was a girl from Hollywood who was staying at Chateau Marmont. She had received a key to my room from the manager. I heard her put the key in the door and turn it, but I had slipped the bolt and that thing, I don’t know what it’s called; it is like a chain but made of two bars that prevented the door from opening. She said, ‘James, open the door’”, she relates in the poem.” We are not going to have sex. If you want to come in, I’ll read you a story.”
On the Howard Stern show, he claimed that he never had sex with Lohan, although they kissed. “She’s so delusional!”, he told her. “ I bet you if we brought her in here and you asked her to her face, ‘Did you have sex with James?’ She would say she did.”
Isabel Pakzad and James Franco (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage)
Since 2017, Franco has been in a relationship with actress and producer Isabel Pakzad , 26 years old. When allegations of sexual misconduct against Franco surfaced in 2018, Pakzad stood by her boyfriend. It is even said that they are engaged.
When they started dating, Franco admitted that he hoped to be a better boyfriend for Pakzad than for other women he was with, and recalled an unusual story with a ex-partner.
“An ex-girlfriend was visiting me in New York. My cat had scratched it on her eye. She had so much work to do for the next day that I didn’t take her to the hospital. I asked my assistant to take her. That moment haunted me so much,” he told Variety.