And the snubs ...
Hollywood power players Spielberg and Hanks, plus James Franco, left.
The Oscars won’t be repeating a Casey Affleck moment with James Franco this year.
It was hard not to breathe a sigh of relief early Tuesday when the Oscar nominations were announced and Franco’s name was absent from the best-actor list.
The star of The Disaster Artist, 39, has faced allegations of sexually inappropriate and exploitative behavior on Twitter and in the Los Angeles Times.
His absence from the Oscar nominations list suggests the Me Too movement is influencing the entertainment industry in big and fast ways, considering how close to the voting deadline the allegations surfaced. But not nominating Franco also saves the Oscars from having to tiptoe around his presence on the big night and at pre-awards events. It lets the conversation about workplace harassment and parity go on without litigating Franco’s case.
Awards pundits had predicted Franco would nab a nomination for his role in
The Disaster Artist. He hit the campaign trail this winter to promote his critically acclaimed performance, and he took home some early awards, including a Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy while wearing a Time’s Up pin, signaling his support for the initiative devoted to addressing sexual harassment and gender inequity.
But Franco’s Oscar campaign came to a screeching halt just after the Globes when five women accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior. Just before the nominations announcement Tuesday, two of Franco’s accusers appeared on Good Morning America asking the actor to “please just apologize.”
The actor has said that he supports the anti-harassment movement and that the stories about him are not accurate. But his alleged behavior presented a problem for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which recently instituted a code of conduct in the wake of multiple members being ac- cused. The allegations against Franco, which broke the day before the voting deadline for nominations, caused some voters to change their minds about him or even ask the academy if they could change their votes, according to the
Times. The newspaper quoted one anonymous actress as saying, “The last thing we need, right in the middle of all this talk about sexual harassment and gender inequity in Hollywood, is someone like that as an Oscar nominee.”
She’s right. While it’s good that the conversation around Me Too continues, the Oscars are not a good venue for arguing specifics. Having a man accused of misconduct at the show would undermine efforts from filmmakers involved in the Time’s Up initiative and any speeches or plans in support of gender equality. Simply put: Franco’s presence would be a distraction.
Separating the art from the artist is a perennial question in Hollywood, one that has been posed more than ever as allegations of improper and criminal behavior have poured out in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s downfall. And while it’s impossible to know how much the allegations against Franco influenced Oscar voters, this is the best outcome for Me Too and the academy. And The
Disaster Artist still received a nomination for best adapted screenplay.
This year the Oscars race is different, after an activist Golden Globes and a mostly business-as-usual SAG Awards. It’s impossible to predict how much Me Too and Time’s Up will be part of the Oscars, but the race does not have room for someone accused of bad behavior.