Five women have accused James Franco of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior, according to a new report from the Los Angeles Times. Four of them were his acting students, while the fifth woman says he was her mentor. The allegations arrive just days after Franco picked up the Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy for The Disaster Artist—amid social-media chatter devoted to a swirl of rumors about his allegedly inappropriate behavior, including three tweets from Ally Sheedy. (Sheedy later deleted the tweets, and Franco told Stephen Colbert he had “no idea” what Sheedy was implying about him. Sheedy did not speak to the L.A. Times for its Franco story.)
In the L.A. Times piece, two of the women—Hilary Dusome, 33, and Natalie Chmiel, both of whom met Franco when he was a teacher at the Playhouse West acting school in North Hollywood—said that Franco had been inappropriate during a shoot for one of his “art films,” which they were purportedly told was going to be used for a 7 for All Mankind commercial. The shoot, filmed at a strip club, was allegedly “hostile and unprofessional,” per the L.A. Times. Dusome and Chmiel say they wore lingerie and that Franco at one point asked them, “So, who wants to take your shirt off?” Chmiel alleges that Franco was “visibly angry” when no one obliged.
“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.”
Franco’s attorney, Michael Plonsker, told the Los Angeles Times that the actor did not make that request.
Another woman, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, was a student in a Sex Scenes master class taught by Franco. She claims that she appeared topless in a short film for the class called Hungry Girl, and the video was later uploaded to Vimeo. She told the L.A. Times that she eventually discovered nude images of herself from the film on a pornography site.
“Now, if you Google me, you can see me naked,” the 26-year-old said. “Before I’ve ever been on TV, or before I’ve ever had any real credits, or before any of this—of course I regret that. I don’t want that.”
Plonsker told the L.A. Times that the school is investigating this matter: “They are committed to hearing voices of concerns and being receptive to their issues.”
Tither-Kaplan also told the paper that she later played a prostitute in a Franco-directed feature film titled The Long Home, which also starred Josh Hutcherson, Courtney Love, and Timothy Hutton. The role required nudity, which she agreed to. But Tither-Kaplan also claims a producer came up to her and other women on set, asking if they wanted to do a “bonus scene” of an orgy. Tither-Kaplan appeared in the background of the scene, which featured Franco simulating oral sex on a handful of other women. Tither-Kaplan claims that Franco removed the clear plastic guard that covered their vaginas and continued to simulate the act; Franco’s attorney claims this is “not accurate.”
Tither-Kaplan also alleges that after a different woman on set balked at doing a scene in which she and other women had to dance topless with animal skulls on their heads, she was sent home.
“I got it in my head pretty quickly that, O.K., you don’t say ‘no’ to this guy,” she said.
Cynthia Huffman, the casting director for The Long Home, said she did not receive any complaints and “personally checked” on the actresses.
“James is all about giving up-and-comers, actors and actresses, and young filmmakers a break in this business,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “I feel horrible that anyone was made to feel uncomfortable, but we went to great lengths to make sure all the actresses in the nude scenes felt comfortable and safe.”
Another woman, Violet Paley, claims that she and Franco met in 2016 when he offered to give her notes on her script. They began a consensual romantic relationship, but Paley claims that he once pressured her into giving him oral sex while they were sitting in her car.
“I was talking to him, all of a sudden his penis was out,” said Paley. “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.”
Plonsker denied the allegations, calling them “not accurate.”
Paley, like Tither-Kaplan, is one of the woman who tweeted about Franco during the Golden Globes, deeming it ironic that he was wearing a Time’s Up pin to the ceremony. She later tweeted that Franco had reached out to her with an “overdue, annoyed, convenient phone ‘apology,’” which she does not accept, and called for him to donate his earnings from The Disaster Artist to RAINN.
Overall, Plonsker denied all the allegations, referring back to Franco’s recent appearance on Colbert.
“Look, in my life, I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done,” Franco said during the late night interview. “I have to do that to maintain my well being. The things that I heard that were 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. So I don’t want to shut them down in any way.”
