While James Franco was accepting his Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical on Sunday night, Twitter lit up with accusations against The Disaster Artist star. Although these accusations aren’t new (and some date back to 2014), they are receiving new light in the wake of #MeToo and the Hollywood-based Time’s Up movement.
While Franco’s accusers took umbrage with the 39-year-old wearing a Time’s Up lapel pin during the awards show and called him out on prior allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor, the star remained silent. That is, until his guest appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where the host grilled the actor on what was said Sunday night.
“I do want to ask you something, and I know I mentioned backstage that I wanted to talk to you about this, and if you’re okay talking about it, I wanted to ask you about some criticism you got on Golden Globes night,” Colbert said, adding that Franco’s support of Time’s Up was criticized. “Do you know why? And do you have a response, or anything you want to say about that criticism?”
Franco was clearly uncomfortable in his response, first talking about his support of the movement, as well as the 50-50 in 2020 organization — a group that hopes to see gender pay equality by the year 2020 as well as gender parity in the workforce. After clarifying his stance, Franco sort of addressed the allegations against him, but did so in a way that deflected blame.
After explaining that he didn’t know what to make of Ally Sheedy’s now-deleted Tweets, in which the actress said, “James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the business,” (among other things), the Pineapple Express star somewhat explained his side of things.
“In my life, I pride myself on taking responsibility for things I’ve done,” Franco said. “I have to do that to maintain my well-being. I do it whenever I know that there’s something wrong that needs to be changed, I make it a point to do it.”
“The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate,” he continued, without elaborating. “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. I think it’s a good thing, and I support it.”
Colbert pressed him, asking him what he can do when someone clearly has a different recollection of an event and shares that on social media.
“Do you have any idea of what the answer might be to come to some sense of what the truth is so there can be some sort of reconciliation between people who clearly have different views of things?” Colbert asked. This question made Franco uneasy, and while it took him a few moments to respond, he didn’t completely clarify his position.
“The way I live my life, I can’t live—if there’s restitution to be made, I will… I will make it,” said Franco. “So if I’ve done something wrong, I will fix it. I have to. I mean, I think that’s how that works. I don’t know what else to do.” Franco then told the host that during these times it is important to listen to what those around us are saying, and that all he can do is try to learn and, maybe, change his perspective.
Maybe he should listen to his own advice.
What do you think about James Franco’s comments about allegations against him? Let us know @BritandCo!
(Photo via Fredrick M. Brown/Getty)
