These James Franco movies prove we should’ve been weary of him from the start

James Franco was once Hollywood’s golden boy. Breaking out as an equally handsome and talented actor in the 90s, James Franco went on to become a well-loved A-list star pretty quickly. By 2001, the actor earned an Emmy nomination and even won a Golden Globe for playing the 1950s legend James Dean in the 2001 television biopic titled James Dean. However, he hasn’t had the same treatment these past years. 

The now forty-three-year-old actor has found himself going from a Hollywood heartthrob to being cancelled after a series of sexual misconduct allegations were made regarding Franco. Seth Rogen, his longtime collaborator, has even gone on to make it clear that he did not want to work with the star ever again. However, should we really be surprised at the allegations that have been made against him these past years? 

After all, if we look back on some of the movies James Franco has been in, it’s like the answers are right there. So just what kind of allegations have been made against the star, and is he cancelled for good? Well, let’s take a look at the controversy he’s gotten himself into these past years, and also look back at his career and the movies that the actor has been in throughout his career here. 

Allegations and lawsuits

Allegations made against James Franco first began to start after the star took a selfie with a seventeen-year-old girl in 2014 and told her to “tag him” on Instagram. He then DM’d the underage girl and offered to rent a hotel room for the two of them. However, while this made headlines, the star wasn’t exactly cancelled yet, and it even prompted Seth Rogen to make a joke of it on Saturday Night Live. 

It wasn’t until four years later in 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement did the world actually wake up and pay attention to the allegations made against James Franco over the years. After he won a Golden Globe for The Disaster Artist, actress Ally Sheedy tweeted: “James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business”. She had worked with him in the 2014 play The Long Shrift. 

Since then, five women have stepped forward to accuse the actor of some form of disturbing sexual assault, four being his past students and the last called him her mentor. The Los Angeles Times reported that “In some cases, they said they believed Franco could offer them career advancement, and acquiesced to his wishes even when they were uncomfortable”.

Tither-Kaplan, one of the accusers, said that “I feel there was an abuse of power, and there was a culture of exploiting non-celebrity women, and a culture of women being replaceable”. She revealed that in a nude orgy scene she once filmed with the star and other women, he took off the protective plastic guards covering the actresses’ vaginas and performed real oral sex on them. 

The Los Angeles Times also reported that “Two other student actresses also recounted negative on-set experiences. Both said Franco became angry when no women, while at the shoot, would agree to be topless”. What’s even creepier is that like we’ve mentioned, some of the roles James Franco has played in past movies bear similar resemblances to the true colors he was eventually exposed to. 

For instance, take Palo Alto, which stars talents like Emma Roberts, Nat Wolff, and James Franco himself. In the movie, James Franco plays a high school soccer coach who is eventually revealed to prey and form sexual relationships with underage girls by paying them to babysit his child and eventually seducing them. What’s even worse? James Franco wrote the book that the movie was adapted from. 

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How do you feel about the allegations regarding James Franco? Were you surprised by these accusations or not? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.