National Post (National Edition)

Five women accuse Franco of inappropri­ate sexual behaviour

4 are students at his acting school

- SADAF AHSAN National Post

After he denied any instances of sexual misconduct on Tuesday’s The Late Show, James Franco was officially accused by five women of inappropri­ate sexual behaviour in an L.A. Times report published Thursday.

After alluding to his misconduct on Twitter during his Golden Globe award win, actress Sarah Tither-Kaplan revealed that Franco removed the protective plastic guards on several of the actresses’ vaginas while simulating oral sex during a scene in his unreleased movie The Long Home. Franco’s lawyer denied it in the report.

Tither-Kaplan, a former student at Franco’s Studio 4 acting school, was also asked to perform a topless scene that involved dancing with an animal skull on her head. She noted, however, that she had signed consent forms agreeing to nudity in the film, something she felt she had to do because she considered this to be her “big break.” When another actress refused to do the scene, TitherKapl­an claims she was sent home the next day.

Two of Franco’s other student actresses, Hilary Dusome and Natalie Chmiel, claimed Franco became angry when they refused to go topless in a strip-club shoot. “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,” Dusome 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.”

Another student, Katie Ryan, said Franco “would always make everybody think there were possible roles on the table if we were to perform sexual acts or take off our shirts,” a claim Franco’s lawyers have also denied, though they have said they will investigat­e the complaints involving his acting school.

Violet Paley, who was mentored by Franco’s and also tweeted hints about his history of misconduct earlier this week, claims in the report that he coerced her into oral sex in 2006. “I was talking to him, all of a sudden his penis was out,” Paley said. “I got really nervous, and I said, ‘Can we do this later?’ He was kind of nudging my head down, and I just didn’t want him to hate me, so I did it.”

The pair later engaged in a consensual sexual relationsh­ip, but in retrospect, she said, “The power dynamic was really off.” After the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Paley emailed Franco about the way he treated her, and he called her to apologize.

Actress Ally Sheedy, who worked with Franco in his 2014 off-Broadway play The Long Shrift, also alluded to his behaviour on Twitter on Sunday night, but has not revealed any specifics. One of her now-deleted tweets read, “James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business.”

On The Late Show this week, Franco said he wasn’t aware of allegation­s other than Sheedy’s, but that they are “not accurate.”

During his Wednesday night appearance on Late Night, host Seth Meyers asked why he hadn’t contacted Sheedy about her tweets after denying he engaged in any questionab­le behaviour with her. Franco said, “It was so shocking. I don’t know, I just. … I guess I’m just letting it be.”

He added, “Like I said, you know, there are stories that need to get out. There are people that need to be heard. I have my own side of this story, but I believe in, you know, these people that have been under-represente­d getting their stories out enough that I will, you know, hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much.

“And if I have to take a knock because I’m not gonna, you know, try and, you know, actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in it that much.”

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