James Franco made his first casting announcement in some time after the actor was accused of sexually assaulting several women who were his students at a now-defunct acting school. Franco admitted the allegations were accurate and settled the lawsuit out of court for over $2 million.
Franco is joining the new film Me, You by director Billy August, playing an Italian fisherman who was a soldier in WWII. The film also stars Tom Hollander and Daisy Jacob in other roles, and it is an adaptation of the novel Tu, Mio by Erri De Luca.
Franco has said that he attended recovery sessions for substance and has been “changing who I was,” when the allegations came about. It’s still discouraging to see him welcomed back into the production fold when the only time he addressed the accusations, he admitted to sleeping with students but did not issue a genuine apology, and sugarcoated the events by saying most of the relationships he was in were “consensual.”
Five women in total came forward with stories about Franco pressuring students to film explicit scenes with him as part of a class, implying he could get them good acting roles if they were sexually compliant and other examples of using his superstar status to get away with predatory actions.
Others took aim at Franco’s film and production connections that enabled this behavior for too long. Actor Charlyne Yi wrote on Instagram that they attempted to quit The Disaster Artist after learning about Franco’s misconduct. Yi alleges that the movie producers, which would have included Seth Rogen, undermined the accusations and offered them a “bribe” in the form of a more prominent role in a bid to get them to stay.
