James Franco abuse allegations: We need to stop watching his movies

Since the world is finally ready to tear down the concept of celebrity worship and the internet has their fingers hovering over their Twitter keyboards ready to cancel the next gross celebrity, we thought we’d remind you about James Franco, who was accused of sexual harassment and messaging underage girls two years ago.

Somehow, this didn’t get him canceled, and it isn’t uncommon for people to still praise Franco and his movies. We can’t get behind him anymore though, with the idea of what he’s potentially done. So, let us remind you of what he was accused of.

Violet Paley

In January of 2018 Violet Paley went to twitter to call out James Franco for wearing a Time’s Up pin to the Golden Globes – a symbol which was part of the #MeToo movement.

Paley’s tweet said, “Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco. Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis & that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?”

Paley and four other women officially accused him in a Los Angeles Times article. Paley is open about the fact she had been in a consensual relationship with Franco, but says that he had forced her to give him oral that day in the car. She admits on Twitter the relationship is part of the reason she was hesitant to come forward originally.

The 2014 scandal

Screenshots of an Instagram conversation from 2014 between James Franco (who was thirty-five at the time) and a teen girl who was still seventeen at the time have been in the hands of the public for years now.

The screenshots show Franco asking the girl (who admits to still being seventeen) questions about where she lives, if she has a boyfriend, and if he should get a hotel room when she visits New York. James Franco didn’t even deny this happened or try to explain it – instead he called it bad judgement – which would be putting it lightly.

His acting school

In 2019 two actresses and former students of James Franco’s acting school Studio 4 filed lawsuits against Franco and two other men who ran the school. They describe his school (which no longer exists) as a scam which gave him access to young girls.

An NPR article, interviewing the two women who sued James Franco, describes creepy instances including a class solely about sex scenes which required an audition and an extra $750. The class also didn’t teach how to maneuver sex scenes professionally – it was about encouraging them to “take risks with their bodies”.

The lawsuit, although only two actresses were named, represented over one hundred women. The lawsuit said the school existed to, “create a steady stream of young women to objectify and exploit”.

Can we cancel him now?

James Franco hasn’t been charged with any crimes, and his lawyers maintain he is innocent of the crimes the lawsuit mentions. However, Franco never denied the accuracy of the Instagram messages – which should be creepy enough on their own to get people to stop watching his movies.

So many people have been canceled for so much less. We think it’s finally time everyone stops blindly praising James Franco and his movies.