The shine has quickly come off James Franco‘s Golden Globes win for Best Actor for “The Disaster Artist.” From the moment he accepted the award on Sunday, Twitter lit up with allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior by the actor and the filmmaker, with actresses Violet Paley and Sarah Tither-Kaplan speaking out about their experiences. Now, three more women have gone on the record about what they say were exploitative incidents with Franco.
The Los Angeles Times have spoken with a total of four actresses and one woman who said Franco was her mentor. In each of their cases, the actor/director stepped over boundaries of acceptable behavior, in situations where there was a clearly imbalanced power dynamic at play. Some, who met Franco through his now shuttered Studio 4 film school, say he created at atmosphere where to say no to his demands was likely to harm the chances of being cast in one his productions, which was one of the promises of succeeding in his class.
In 2015, Franco asked Tither-Kaplan to play a prostitute in the still unreleased feature film “The Long Home,” with a cast that included him, Josh Hutcherson, Courtney Love and Timothy Hutton. The part required her to perform nude, and she agreed because she considered it a big break. However, during filming, Tither-Kaplan says Franco added a bonus “orgy scene” which saw him simulating oral sex on the actresses, but removing the clear plastic guard that covered their vaginas.
Another unscripted sequence saw actresses wear animal skulls and dance around Franco nude. When one woman declined, she was sent home the next day.
“I got it in my head pretty quickly that, OK, you don’t say ‘no’ to this guy,” Tither-Kaplan said.
“I feel there was an abuse of power, and there was a culture of exploiting non-celebrity women, and a culture of women being replaceable,” she added.
Former student Hilary Dusome says she experienced a “hostile” set while working with Franco on a commercial that was shot at a strip club. During filming, Franco asked the women assembled if any would appear topless, and stormed off when no one stepped forward.
“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,” she said. “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.”
Franco’s attorney has denied the alleged incidents, and more than a dozen students told the Times they had a “positive experience” at Studio 4. Earlier this week, Franco addressed some of the allegations on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” saying, “….in my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done. I have to do that to maintain my well-being. I do it whenever I know that there’s something that’s wrong that needs to be changed. The things that I’ve 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 shut them down in any way. I think it’s a good thing and I support it.”
“The Disaster Artist” is now playing.