Tinseltown troublemaker James Franco is finally ditching the raunchy Instagram
pics and committing to a steady relationship — and all it took was getting absolutely canceled!
Actor James Franco certainly had plenty of success in his career,
but he's also been accused of some pretty dark behavior. In 2014, for example,
messages between him and a then-17-year-old girl landed in the press. In their exchange,
Franco hit on her and asked if he should get them a hotel room. He apologized for his actions later
on "Live! With Kelly and Michael." Then in her 2018 memoir, "This Will Only Hurt a Little,"
actor Busy Philipps said that James assaulted her by pushing her to the ground on the set of their
show "Freaks and Geeks." It happened after she was improvising a scene and hit him in the chest.
But despite the ill behavior that Franco was accused of, it didn't seem to affect his career in
a major way. That changed, however, when the Los Angeles Times interviewed female actors who said
they were victims of sexual misconduct by Franco at his now-closed Studio 4 film school. Franco was
pretty much canceled after the 2018 article was released and his film career plummeted.
Nearly two years after Sarah Tither-Kaplan's story about James Franco was published in the
Los Angeles Times, she and Toni Gaal filed a class-action lawsuit against
him and two others. In their suit, filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court,
both women said that Franco sexually exploited them on movie shoots and auditions. Both took
his class at Studio 4 and claimed that he promised to put them in his films
that oftentimes were never released. The suit read, per The New York Times,
"[Franco and his co-defendants] engaged in widespread inappropriate and sexually
charged behavior towards female students by sexualizing their power as a teacher and
an employer by dangling the opportunity for roles in their projects. [The behavior] led
to an environment of harassment and sexual exploitation both in and out of the class."
Other women eventually joined the suit and in June 2021,
The Hollywood Reporter shared news that Franco settled for $2,235,000,
an amount that was split among the plaintiffs. At the beginning of their suit, Franco's lawyer
Michael Plonsker said the women filed it just for publicity. But that tune changed when Franco
and his legal team had to agree to a statement as part of the settlement. The statement read:
"While Defendants continue to deny the allegations in the complaint, they
acknowledge that Plaintiffs have raised important issues; and all parties strongly believe that now
is a critical time to focus on addressing the mistreatment of women in Hollywood."
In 2018, when James Franco won a Golden Globe award for Best Lead
Actor in a Comedy for "The Disaster Artist," let's just say that actor
Ally Sheedy didn't congratulate him. Her now-deleted tweet read:
"James Franco just won. Please never ask me why I left the film/tv business."
Sheedy worked with Franco in the 2014 off-Broadway play "The Long Shrift," which he directed. But
"The Breakfast Club" star wasn't the only person who disliked his Golden Globe win.
Sarah Tither-Kaplan tweeted about him sexually exploiting her, while a third actor, Violet Paley,
accused Franco of doing something horrible to her when they sat in a car once. At first,
the star denied the allegations on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert."
"The things that I heard on twitter are not accurate."
When the Los Angeles Times published the woman's account,
his lawyer said that his client did nothing wrong. In December of 2021,
however, Franco did admit to some wrongdoing on "The Jess Cagle Podcast."
"Over the course of my teaching I did sleep with students, and that was wrong."
Franco clarified by adding that this was not his intention behind creating the
school. Franco then said at the time he didn't understand the power imbalance of a teacher
being involved with a student, and that since it was consensual, he thought it was totally fine.
James Franco and actor, writer, and director Seth Rogen have teamed up for some pretty
memorable films like "Pineapple Express," "This Is The End," "The Interview," as well
as the TV show "Freaks and Geeks." But in a 2021 interview with The Sunday Times,
Rogen said that his working days with Franco were over due to the sexual misconduct claims
against him. Rogen also brought up a 2018 Vulture interview where he said the opposite, wanting to
work with Franco despite that career-damaging Los Angeles Times article. Rogen told The Sunday
Times that his personal relationship with Franco has now shifted. He added:
"I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James,
and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now."
One actor named Charlyne Yi accused Rogen of enabling Franco's behavior. It was a
claim that she made on Instagram just one month before his Sunday Times interview.
Franco eventually talked about Rogen on "The Jess Cagle Podcast" and backed his words, explaining,
"He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator. We just gelled. What he said
is true. We aren't working together right now, and we don't have any plans to work together."
"Of course, it was hurtful in context, but I get it,
you know, he had to answer for me because I was silent."
One thing that James Franco has been doing since being canceled is working. In May of 2022,
Deadline revealed that he signed on to star in "Mace," a film where he'll play a corrupt police
officer. Trevor Jackson, of "Grown-ish" fame, co-stars as another cop who abides by the law
and does things by the book. Filming is said to start in New Jersey at some point in 2022,
and Franco has been silent about "Mace" since it made headlines.
Myriad Pictures is financially backing the project, and so far,
a premiere date has yet to be announced. More than likely, many will probably look
at "Mace" as Franco's comeback film. It'll be a test for Myriad Pictures,
as well as production company the Meyers Media Group, to see if people are willing to embrace
a new film from the actor. As of 2022, Franco's talent agency UTA has remained with him through
the sexual misconduct claims and lawsuit. Reportedly, he signed with them in 2016.
When James Franco addressed the accusations against him on "The Jess Cagle Podcast," he
also spoke of Izabel Pakzad, an actor and director who he's been dating since 2017. As of June 2022,
the couple is still going strong. The Daily Mail published photos of them
at that time hanging out at a beach in Mykonos, Greece. They first did a little
sailing before dipping into the southern Aegean Sea and frolicking with each other.
In his Cagle interview, Franco said for the first part of his relationship with Pakzad,
it was fun for her because his film "The Disaster Artist” was coming out. But after
his sexual misconduct scandal erupted, the California native said it was hard
for her to deal with. He also talked about meeting Pakzad and courting her
in a way that he considers old-fashioned, especially after some much needed growth.
"I'd had girlfriends. I could never be faithful to anybody. So, I cheated on everyone before Isabel."
Unlike typical techniques of just trying to seduce someone for a good time,
Franco wanted to do things right for a long-term relationship. He explained that
his plan—get coffee, go to lunch, go on a hike or even a dance class—worked with Pakzad, and
they've been able to have a mature relationship through everything that's happened recently.
"There's a lot of good things that have come out of these four years,
and Isabel's probably the biggest."
There are some celebrities who remain on social media after they've been called out for
horrible behavior, but James Franco is not one of them. For example, as of June 2022,
his last tweet was in 2020, and he hasn't shared a Facebook post since
2016 — two years before that Los Angeles Times article came out. So obviously Franco began
slowing down on social media for other reasons besides the scandal. In fact,
he talked about quitting Instagram in 2017 while speaking to Variety. He shared,
"It's very liberating. I just got rid of it. When I first got on, it just felt silly. I
treated it like it was a joke. You get in that weird seductive space where it feels private,
but it's also public. And you get hooked on the reaction ... There was some photo I
did. I wasn't naked. I'm sure Rihanna has posted a bunch more risqué photos. It was
just the attitude of the photo. It was sweaty, my hand was in my boxers, it just looked gross."
That particular photo was bought up in some of the articles that were written
about Franco after the sexual misconduct claims surfaced. It's safe to say that
if the ostracized actor was still on social media,
he'd be lambasted for it since some feel like he hasn't taken full accountability for his actions.
James Franco made a cameo in the much-talked-about defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber
Heard. Well, not Franco himself, but his image — since he was seen in footage with
Heard riding in an elevator. Depp's attorney, Camille Vasquez, showed the clip during the
trial because it was said that Depp accused his ex-wife of having a longtime affair with Franco.
It was an accusation that Heard denied, stating they're only close friends and former neighbors.
She also co-starred in the films "Pineapple Express" and "The Adderall Diaries" with Franco.
In one part of the elevator footage, Heard and Franco can be seen resting their heads
on each other while heading to Heard and Depp's penthouse. Plus, the footage is dated May 22,
2016, at 10:51 p.m., and Heard filed for divorce from Depp one day after. All along,
they both accused each other of domestic abuse but denied it. Depp was also out
of town during Franco's visit. Vasquez asked Heard about Franco while she was on the stand.
"You changed the lock to the penthouses on May 22, 2016?"
"I attempted to."
Vasquez shot back, asking:
"That's why you felt comfortable having James
Franco over the evening of May 22, 2016, Ms. Heard?"
According to Buzzfeed, Franco was supposed to testify for Heard but that didn't happen. The
actor hasn't commented on the trial as of June 2022 and said nothing about his name coming up.