James Franco Denies Sexual Harassment Allegations On 'The Late Show'
James Franco was recently called out on Twitter by actress Ally Sheedy during the 2018 Golden Globes, who alluded to sexual harassment allegations against the actor. Now, James has addressed these accusations on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Stephen asked James about the criticism he received after winning the best actor award at the Globes for The Disaster Artist. “I haven’t read them. I’ve heard about them,” James, 39, said of the tweets about him. After his win, Ally tweeted, "James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business.”
James and Ally worked together on his Off-Broadway directorial debut, The Long Shrift in 2014. However, James said he has no idea what she could be talking about.
“Okay, first of all, I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy, I directed her in a play Off-Broadway," James told Stephen. "I had nothing but a great time with her, total respect for her. I have no idea why she was upset. She took the tweet down. I don’t know. I can’t speak for her, I don’t know."
Then, James addressed the other accusations against him, like he tried to hook up with an underage fan. "I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I’ve done. I have to do that to maintain my well-being," he said. “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.”
The actor also reiterated his support of the Time's Up movement. "I support change," he said. "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."
When Stephen asked him how people should handle accusations of sexual misconduct, James said he is working on listening. “As far as the bigger issues, you know, how we do it, I really don’t have the answers and I think the point of this whole thing is that we listen," he said. "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."
Watch the full video above.
