James Franco has broken his silence about sexual misconduct allegations made against him. The actor was asked about the claims while promoting his film The Disaster Artist on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“I haven’t read them. I’ve heard about them,” the 39-year-old said on Tuesday, January 9.
As previously reported, Ally Sheedy called out Franco on Sunday after he won a Golden Globe for the comedy. “Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much,” she wrote in now-deleted tweets. “James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business.” Sheedy didn’t go into detail, but since then, women have accused the Freaks and Geeks alum of sexual harassment.
“Okay, first of all, I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy, I directed her in a play Off-Broadway. I had nothing but a great time with her, total respect for her. I have no idea why she was upset,” Franco told Colbert. “She took the tweet down. I don’t know. I can’t speak for her, I don’t know.”
“The others… look, in my life, I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I’ve done. I have to do that to maintain my well-being. I do it whenever I know that there is something wrong or needs to be changed, I make it a point to do it,” he continued. “The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, 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, you know, shut them down in any way. It’s, I think, a good thing and I support it.”
Before the controversy, Franco wore the Time’s Up pin to the Golden Globes, which was to help raise awareness and support sexual harassment and assault victims across all industries.
“Well, first, I want to say I wore it because I do support it. I was, you know – look, I was so excited to win, but being in that room that night was incredible. I mean, it was powerful,” Franco explained. “There were incredible voices, and I support it. I support change. I support 50/50 and 20/20 which just means, you know, people that are underrepresented, women, and people of color, people in the LGBT community get, you know, positions – leadership positions that they fill all positions that they have been deprived of, I completely believe in that.”
Franco thinks that the point of the movement that’s rocked Hollywood is to “listen.”
“The way I live my life, I can’t live if there’s restitution to be made. I will make it. So if I’ve done something wrong, I will fix it. I have to. I mean, I think that’s how that works,” he added. “There were incredible people talking that night. They had a lot to say, and I’m here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it’s off, and I’m completely willing and want to.”
