Five women accuse James Franco of sexually exploitative behaviour
Former students recall star’s series of sex scene, nudity demands in ‘art film’ project
LOS ANGELES— It should have been a pure moment of triumph for James Franco. He collected one of Hollywood’s top prizes at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, but as he stood on the ballroom stage, some were paying more attention to the Time’s Up pin on his lapel than the gold statue he picked up for his turn in The Disaster Artist.
It “was like a slap in my face,” said Sarah Tither-Kaplan, a former acting student at the film school Franco founded. She is one of five women who, in interviews with the Times, accused Franco, 39, of behaviour they found to be inappropriate or sexually exploitative. Four were his students, and another said he was her mentor.
“I feel there was an abuse of power,” said Tither-Kaplan, who was one of many women who took to Twitter on Sunday night to vent anger over Franco’s win.
She told the Times that in a nude orgy scene she filmed with Franco and several women three years ago, he removed protective plastic guards covering other actresses’ vaginas while simulating oral sex on them.
Franco has attracted attention for controversial behaviour on social media. In 2014, he used Instagram to ask a 17-year-old British girl he’d met outside a New York theatre if she had a boyfriend and whether she was 18. Even after learning her age, he asked for the name of her hotel and if he should rent a room. After that episode became public, Franco apologized on ABC’s Live! With Kelly and Michael.
Also in 2014, Franco launched a film school — Studio 4 in Los Angeles and New York — where he taught and mentored hundreds of aspiring actors and filmmakers; both locations abruptly closed last fall. Before opening Studio 4, Franco taught at Playhouse West in North Hollywood — a school where he’d received training as an actor.
Two of his former students there said he put female students in uncomfortable situations beyond the normal parameters of acting class.
Hilary Dusome, 33, who took a class from Franco in 2012, said that at first, she found him to be “a really generous spirit” eager to help aspiring actors.
Her feelings shifted after being selected to appear, with a handful of other female students, in what she thought was one of Franco’s “art films.” Natalie Chmiel, the other student, said she was told the footage would be used in a 7 For All Mankind jeans commercial.
Both women described what they considered to be an unprofessional and hostile shoot at a strip club.
Midway through filming, Dusome said Franco approached the actresses — who wore masks and lingerie — and asked, “So, who wants to take your shirt off?”
When no actresses volunteered, Franco stormed off, Dusome recalled.
“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.”
Chmiel, 33, said Franco was “visibly angry” when the women declined to take their tops off. “He just took advantage of our eagerness to work and be a part of something bigger,” Chmiel said.
Franco did not make the request the women alleged, his lawyer said.
Studio 4’s North Hollywood school opened first; the New York City outpost soon thereafter. More than a dozen former students told the Times in interviews that they had a positive experience at Studio 4, where pupils were initially charged a monthly tuition of $300 (U.S.). Many said they were shocked by the school’s sudden closure last fall and did not know why it had shuttered.
Former student Prashant Thakker said Franco put in extra effort to make students feel heard. “If he felt the class wasn’t enough, he would take us writers to a separate venue outside of class. He would keep teaching us over and over again,” he said. But not every student was pleased. “It was kind of a bummer,” said Kelsey Ann Wacker, a New York student.
“He was shooting The Deuce, but would come to class, and you were like, ‘Did you just fall asleep under your ball cap?’ He’d sit at the front and be a grouch. I wish he would have taken more of a responsibility to teach.”
One of the things that made Studio 4different from other acting schools, Franco promised, was its ability to funnel promising talent into the actor’s own projects. Indeed, the school’s now-closed website said that Franco and his production company, Rabbit Bandini Productions, would “cast roles directly from his classes.”
But several students said that these parts were rarely handed out to people in the classes.
“They would tell us that smaller parts in their projects were being held exclusively for students — often they were opportunities for (work as extras) or parts that required nudity,” said Devyn LaBella, who spent a year as a student at the NoHo location.
LaBella said she and classmates uploaded auditions to a website, but no one she knew ever heard back.
Katie Ryan, who met Franco at Playhouse West and took several classes at Studio 4, said the actor “would always make everybody think there were possible roles on the table if we were to perform sexual acts or take off our shirts.”
Franco is “not aware that any of the actions alleged by Ms. Ryan ever occurred,” his attorney said.
Vince Jolivette, co-owner of Rabbit Bandini, which ran Studio 4, said in a statement provided by Franco’s lawyer that “the school was always run professionally.”
Some students did appear in Rabbit Bandini productions. In 2015, the company made a deal with digital distributor Maker Studios to premiere two original series spawned from Studio 4. One of the projects was a docu-series that went behind the scenes of Franco’s Sex Scenes master class, which taught students about the art of being intimate on camera.
As part of Tither-Kaplan’s experience in the Sex Scenes class, she and her partner created a short film, Hungry Girl, which shows her top- less and was uploaded to the videosharing website Vimeo. Last year, she discovered images from the film on at least one pornography website.
“Now, if you Google me, you can see me naked,” said Tither-Kaplan, 26.
The video posted to Vimeo, according to Franco’s attorney, Michael Plonsker, was not under the control of the school or Franco; any online posted was done by students, he said. Rabbit Bandini appeared to be aware that the videos had been uploaded. In a May 2015 email sent to TitherKaplan and her fellow “Sex Sceners,” a company employee told the class he “just wanted to let (them) know the films are now up on the Studio 4 Vimeo Channel.”
In 2015, Franco asked Tither-Kaplan to play a prostitute in another of his projects, the 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. In fact, she signed nudity agreements for each of the films she made with Franco.
But one day on set in May 2015, a producer approached her and other women to ask if they wanted to film a “bonus scene” of an orgy. In it, Tither-Kaplan appeared fully nude in the background, she said. A handful of other women were selected to appear with Franco, who simulated performing oral sex on each of them, Tither-Kaplan said. But in each case, she said he removed a clear plastic guard that covered their vaginas — and continued to simulate the sex act with no protection.
Then, Tither-Kaplan said, she and her female co-stars were asked to appear topless in an unscripted scene and dance around Francoheads. One actress who balked was sent home the next day, Tither-Kaplan said: “I got it in my head pretty quickly that, OK, you don’t say ‘no’ to this guy.”
Another actress who participated in the shoots confirmed TitherKaplan’s account of the incident.
Franco’s lawyer, Plonsker, said “the allegations about the protective guards are not accurate.” He also pointed to numerous social media posts by Tither-Kaplan that reflected a positive experience on the set.
Tither-Kaplan acknowledged that she had been excited about making new friends during production and also wanted to promote her work on a notable project. Still, she said, the negative experiences were “red flags.”
No distribution deal for The Long Home or formal release plans have been announced.
Violet Paley, 23, told the Times that when she met Franco in early 2016 she was eager to become a filmmaker and that he had been willing to give her notes on her script.
They had begun a romantic relationship when she said he pressured her into performing oral sex on him — an act she’d never done with him at that point — while sitting in her car.
“I was talking to him, all of a sudden his penis was out,” Paley said.
“He was kind of nudging my head down, and I just didn’t want him to hate me, so I did it.”
Franco’s lawyer, Plonsker, denied Paley’s allegations, calling them “not accurate.”
“I don’t think he started teaching with bad intentions, but he went down a bad path.” HILARY DUSOME FORMER STUDENT