On Thursday, James Franco found himself back in the national conversation. But it wasn’t like it was in the fall of 2017, when the Palo Alto–born film and TV star was winning raves for directing and starring in “The Disaster Artist,” a sweet comedic homage to the filmmaker behind one of the worst movies ever made.
Instead, news broke far and wide Thursday that Franco, 41, was being sued by two women who allege that he and his partners in a now-defunct Los Angeles acting school sexually exploited them while they were his students.
The women, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, allege in their suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that Franco pushed his students into performing in increasingly explicit sex scenes on camera in an “orgy type setting.” The women said they were promised roles in Franco’s films if they went along.
The allegations are nothing new. Similar claims first surfaced in a January 2018 Los Angeles Times report, in which five women, including Tither-Kaplan, claim he engaged in sexually harassing or abusive behavior while he was their teacher at Studio 24.
As it happens, that Los Angeles Times report came four days after the night that was supposed to be the start of a glorious, career-high awards season for Franco.
On January 7, 2018, Franco stood before a global TV audience at the Golden Globe Awards to accept an award for best actor in a comedy. It was his first major win of the 2017-18 awards season; the Golden Globe was supposed to make him a serious contender for a nomination for a best actor Oscar.
But timing was not on Franco’s on his side: The #MeToo and Time’s Up movements were in full swing by January 2018. Almost every day, it seemed, powerful men in media and entertainment were being exposed in investigative news reports and lawsuits as serial sexual predators.
For the Golden Globe Awards, female stars banded together to wear all black to show their support for their newly formed Time’s Up movement. Their male colleagues wore Time’s Up pins in solidarity.
Franco was one of the men who chose to wear a Time’s Up pin on the lapel of his tuxedo. This choice would almost immediately be seen as the ultimate act of denial and hubris, given the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Franco that swiftly followed.
Indeed, the allegations began to pour in within hours after Franco’s Golden Globe appearance. They started with “The Breakfast Club” star Ally Sheedy, who took to Twitter that night to hint that Franco did something that prompted her to leave acting, Vanity Fair reported.
“James Franco just won. Please never ask me why I left the film/TV business,” she wrote. In another tweet, she wrote, “Why is James Franco allowed in?”
Later that night, Violet Paley, a former girlfriend, also took to Twitter to publicly accuse Franco of forcing her to give him oral sex in a car while they were dating.
Two days later, Franco tried to defend himself on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” He told Colbert he had no idea what he did to Sheedy and said that the other things being said about him on Twitter “are not accurate.”
“But I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long,” Franco said. “So, I don’t want to shut them down in any way. It’s a good thing and I support it.”
James Franco denied sexual misconduct accusations in an interview with Stephen Colbert https://t.co/MLKNiZowY2
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 10, 2018
Franco also said, “If there’s restitution to be made, I will make it. I’m here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it’s off.”
The lengthy Los Angles Times report came the next day.
James Franco Accused of Sexually Exploitative Behavior by Five Women in Los Angeles Times Report: https://t.co/VIp1OF2Qcp pic.twitter.com/YCKoawY5H5
— IndieWire (@IndieWire) January 11, 2018
With that, Franco did not receive his Oscar nomination. He also entered a new phase of his life and career. He stopped being known for being a uniquely talented and sometimes pretentious-acting film and TV star — who already had one previous Oscar nomination and who wrote fiction, made visual art, taught university courses and, as the Los Angeles Times report showed, ran an acting school of questionable repute.
Instead, since the Golden Globes in January 2018, the actor has become known as another one of the (allegedly) bad men of the #MeToo era. His name is included in a list that also features Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose and many others.
After that night, people also were reminded of Franco admitting in 2014 that he tried to pick up a 17-year-old girl after messages they had exchanged were shared online.
Sadly, the charming “The Disaster Artist” was overshadowed by the allegations against its star and director. The film was based on the non-fiction book by the same name, co-authored by actor and East Bay native Greg Sestoro. The book and film chronicled Sestoro’s friendship with actor and director Tommy Wiseau while they were making the cult film “The Room.” Some critics said Franco’s portrayal of the enigmatic Wiseau was the best performance of his career.
A few weeks after the Golden Globes ceremony, officials at the Palo Alto Unified School District ordered that a mural Franco painted at Palo Alto High be painted over. Franco graduated from Palo Alto High in 1996 and was a frequent guest on the campus.
Other artwork that Franco donated to his alma mater in 2014 also was to be “transitioned” off campus, according to a statement issued by school officials. Erasing the works and donations of Paly High’s most famous graduate came after pressure from parents as well as controversy on campus.
On Thursday, Franco’s attorney Michael Plonsker denied the allegations made against the actor in the new lawsuit and called them “ill-informed.”
“James will not only fully defend himself, but will also seek damages from the plaintiffs and their attorneys for filing this scurrilous publicity-seeking lawsuit,” Plonsker said in a statement to the New York Times.
But this defense may be coming too late for Franco’s career. Since January 2018, he has mostly kept out of the spotlight, producing or directing small art or independent films, Indiwire reported. His friend and frequent collaborator Seth Rogen told Indiewire in 2018: “I know he’s back at work, so that’s, I think, good for him and a sign that things seem to be OK for him.
Franco appeared in the Coen Brothers’ film “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” And last month, he finally released his long-gestating passion project, “Zeroville,” his film adaption of the Hollywood noir-inspired novel by Steve Erickson.
The Guardian critic Charles Bramesco said he was the only person in the audience at a screening in a New York theater. He blasted “Zeroville,” which Franco directed and starred in, as a “work of staggering incompetence.”
Franco also has turned up in dual roles in the second and third seasons of “The Deuce,” HBO’s drama about the rise of the porn industry in 1970s New York. The third season began airing Sept. 9.
David Simon, “The Deuce” creator, issued a statement after the allegations against Franco first surfaced, saying Franco, an executive producer on the series, had been “entirely professional as an actor, director and producer.”
When “The Deuce” began its second season in September 2018, Vanity Fair writer Sonia Saraiya raised questions about Franco continuing to co-star as twins Vinnie and Frankie in the series.
Saraiya offered a critical assessment of Franco being in “The Deuce” that reflects how Franco’s other film and TV projects, going forward, could be received by critics and audiences, especially in light of the lawsuit filed Thursday.
“It works directly against the premise of ‘The Deuce,’ which seeks to illuminate the hidden corners of an exploitative, but exciting industry,” Saraiya wrote. “I cannot deny that Franco is a wonderful performer; he always has been. (Except when he co-hosted the Academy Awards that one time).”
“But his presence is not good for ‘The Deuce,'” she continued. “‘The Deuce’ is so good at revealing the indignities and paradoxes of power dynamics in the sex industry — which only casts its approach to offscreen controversy into deeper relief.”
