James Franco broke his silence on the sexual misconduct claims against him
James Franco addressed the sexual harassment claims leveled against him following the 2018 Golden Globes during his appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. After sporting the Time’s Up pin at the awards show on Sunday, January 7th, the actor was met with criticism and accusations of sexual misconduct, specifically from filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan and actresses Ally Sheedy and Violet Paley.
Franco has denied the allegations, stating the claims are “not accurate.”
“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,” he told host Stephen Colbert. “She took the tweet down. I don’t know. I can’t speak for her, I don’t know.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpEuHHMy-Z8?feature=oembed
Sheedy called out the actor after he won a Golden Globe for his leading role in The Disaster Artist. “Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much,” she wrote in now-deleted tweets. “James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business.”
As for the other claims, Franco didn’t exactly deny the accusations specifically, but said he prides himself on taking responsibility for his actions and is ready to “fix” whatever he’s done wrong.
"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," he continued. "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."
His choice of words is interesting considering the fact that Paley posted several of her own tweets claiming the actor called her to apologize.
Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco. Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis & that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?
— Violet (@VioletPaley) January 8, 2018
A couple weeks ago, James offered me & a few other girls an overdue, annoyed, convenient phone “apology”. I don’t accept, but maybe some other people’s lives would be made easier if he donated all of his earnings from “The Disaster Artist” to @RAINN01.
— Violet (@VioletPaley) January 9, 2018
“The way I live my life, I can’t live if there’s restitution to be made,” Franco added. “I will make it. So if I’ve done something wrong, I will fix it. I have to. I mean, I think that’s how that works.”
Franco went on to say that there were incredible people sharing their voices at the Globes and that he wants to “listen and learn,” as well as change his perspective “where it’s off.”
