James Franco Attends SAG Awards Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations
James Franco chose to attend the 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards despite multiple accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior. Franco was nominated for the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in “The Disaster Artist.” The SAG Award went to Gary Oldman for “Darkest Hour.”
The Los Angeles Times published a report on January 11 in which five women went on record accusing Franco of sexually inappropriate and exploitative behavior. Four of the accusers are Franco’s former acting students.
Sarah Tither-Kaplan was an actor on the set of Franco’s film “The Long Home” and was asked by a producer to appear in a “bonus scene” that included a simulated orgy. She agreed to appear fully nude in the background of the scene, but she told the Times that she saw Franco remove clear plastic guards that covered actresses’ vaginas “to simulate the sex act with no protection.”
Katie Ryan was also a former student of Franco’s and told the Times that the writer-actor-director “would always make everybody think there were possible roles on the table if we were to perform sexual acts or take off our shirts.”
Another woman, Violet Paley, was having a consensual romantic relationship with Franco in 2016 when she says he forced her to perform oral sex on him in her car.
During appearances on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” earlier this month, Franco said that the allegations against him are “not accurate.” The actor told Seth Meyers that he wasn’t going to “actively refute” the accusations since he felt every woman should be able to share her story.
The 24th annual SAG Awards were presented Sunday, January 21, 2018 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and hosted by Kristen Bell. Check out IndieWire’s full coverage here.
