James Franco’s victory over his Golden Globes win for The Disaster Artist was short lived, as Ally Sheedy and others took to Twitter to accuse the actor of inappropriate behavior and point out the so-called hypocrisy at him wearing a “Time’s Up” pin during the ceremony. When later grilled by both Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers, Franco struggled to talk about the allegations.
“In my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for what I’ve done. The things I heard are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out because they didn’t have a voice for so long,” he told Colbert. “I don’t want to shut them down in any way. I think it’s a good thing and I support it.”
Ashley Judd, a Harvey Weinstein victim and one of the loudest voices in the #MeToo movement, was asked to weigh in on Franco’s response during a BBC interview with Stephen Sakur. Somewhat surprisingly, Judd had nothing but kind words for Franco, praising him for attempting to own up to his behavior.
I think that what James said is terrific. And I think that we’ve all behaved — at a certain level — unconsciously, and done things that were insensitive, inappropriate, without necessarily understanding that they were. I mean we’ve all operated with a certain amount of tone-deafness, and I like the culpability, and we have to have restorative justice. This is about men and women being all together and having a more equitable and just workplace, home life, social spaces.
Five women went on to speak with the Los Angeles Times to accuse Franco of “sexually exploitative” behavior, however HBO later confirmed that a second season of The Deuce will continue with Franco on board.
(Via The Cut)