Five Women Accuse James Franco of Being Sexually Exploitative and Inappropriate
Actor and director James Franco has been accused by five women of engaging in sexually exploitative and inappropriate behavior. Franco is one of many from Hollywood now being accused of sexual misconduct, however, he has since denied these accusations to the Los Angeles Times. While Franco was just seen at the Golden Globe awards receiving recognition for “The Disaster Artist” and showing his support for the victims of sexual misconduct by wearing a Time’s Up pin, his name is now making headlines with the words “sexual misconduct” attached to it.
One of the accusers, Tither-Kaplan, stated that she felt as though Franco’s gesture of wearing the Times Up pin on his lapel was a slap in her face. Kaplan was a former acting student who attended Franco’s film school he founded and even went on to appear in several of his productions. She was one of four of his students who are alleging Franco engaged in behavior that was either inappropriate or sexually exploitative. The fifth woman who accused the actor was being mentored by him.
The women claim that they felt he could offer them “career advancement” which made them inclined to give in to things even when it made them feel uncomfortable. Tither-Kaplan also stated that she felt he used his “power” as a Hollywood star to exploit women like her who weren’t quite at that celebrity level. She went on to describe to the LA Times a time when she filmed an orgy scene with Franco along with several other women three years back where he “removed protective guards covering other actresses’ vaginas while stimulating oral sex on them.”
Two other women described a time when they had a negative on-set experience with Franco. According to the two student actresses, Franco apparently became extremely irate when no one would agree to be topless [Source: The Wrap]. Whether this is the usual behavior that occurs on certain movie sets, that will need to be determined by the representing attorneys. However, with the spotlight being on Hollywood, things aren’t looking too good for Franco. He has even come forward and stated that he prides himself “on taking responsibility for things that he has done,” and is willing to fix wherever he may have gone wrong.
One of his former students issued a statement saying, “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.”
Unfortunately, with acting, there is a sometimes a gray area that exists on a movie set where a certain behavior is expected of a character that may have been misconstrued of being an act of misconduct. And vice versa. There are some producers and filmmakers who take advantage of the character’s role and have women engage in behavior that simply isn’t required for the part but rather for their own mere pleasure.
For this reason, the five women who have come forward will want to be represented by a skilled California sexual harassment attorney should they wish to pursue charges.
