James Franco finally discusses sexual misconduct allegations and claims he is a sex addict.
Four years ago, Franco was accused of sexual misconduct by five women, four of which had been students of his in the actor’s “Sex Scenes” master class.
Now, only a few months after James Franco settled a lawsuit for $2.2 million regarding the sexual misconduct in question, he appeared on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle podcast and opened up about the events.
Two of the students filed a lawsuit against Franco for “exploitation” in his master class where he allegedly “had intimidated them into performing gratuitous sex scenes while denying them the protections of nudity riders.”
In June 2021, Franco paid a settlement of $2.2 million USD (that’s just over $3 million AUD) to the victims and has finally taken a moment to discuss the allegations publicly.
“In 2018, there were some complaints about me and an article about me. And at that moment I just thought, ‘I’m gonna be quiet. I’m gonna pause.’ [It] did not seem like the right time to say anything. There were people that were upset with me and I needed to listen,” Franco said.
As great as that was to hear, Franco did, however, point out that he thought the title of the class was misleading which felt a little like making a ridiculous excuse: “I was not teaching people how to do sex scenes or intimate scenes or anything of that nature,” Franco explained, “It was a provocative title.”
The Pineapple Express star said after hearing how he hurt these women he has worked on himself and underwent treatment for substance abuse that has helped his overall addiction issues.
We love to see a bit of growth but not everyone is convinced.
Whenever a predator is trying to stage a comeback and claims they have been “doing the work,” the interviewer should immediately ask: what work have you done? https://t.co/94HTMxxj33
— Allison Kilkenny (@allisonkilkenny) December 22, 2021
Franco discussed his history with addictions and the revelation he has made in recent years: “When I was a teenager I was addicted to alcohol and got in a lot of trouble. got sober when I was 17.”
“Once I couldn’t use alcohol to sort of fill that hole it was like ‘oh success, attention, this is great!’ and so in a weird way, I got addicted to validation I guess or success or whatever that is.”
“And then there was another thing that happened where, along the road, trying to get success and you know, climb the top of that mountain. Attention from women, success with women also became a huge source of validation. The problem with that is, I’m sure you can guess, like any sort of drug or anything, there’s never enough.”
“I could never be faithful to anybody so I cheated on everyone, before Isabelle.”
Franco said he thinks his sex and love addiction was what made him to blind to power dynamics.
“The behaviour spun out to a point where I was hurting everybody.”
While we’re not sure how the interview would have made Franco’s alleged victims feel, he seems deeply sincere and we always want to see someone accused of shitty behaviour trying to learn from their mistakes and be better instead of just ignoring them or giving a half-arsed apology.
Watch clips from the interview below.
