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In 2019, actor James Franco had a sexual misconduct suit filed against him by two former students of his now-closed acting school, Studio 4. Franco is an Academy award-winning actor and is especially known for his comedies with Seth Rogen and his remake of “The Disaster Artist.”
Actresses Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal alleged that Franco engaged in “sexually-charged behavior towards female students.” They also described the purpose of his school as being to “create a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education.” The women said they were coerced to take part in acting out sex scenes in an “orgy type setting” that would not be allowed on a movie set. According to them, Franco would get students to partake in the exercises by “dangling the opportunity for roles” in his films.
This is not the first time these types of allegations have been made against the actor. In early 2018, just three months after Studio 4’s closing, the LA Times published a story where five women alleged that Franco had treated them inappropriately. This story also included Tither-Kaplan and described situations where female students were pressured to remove their clothes for sex scenes that did not follow studio or film regulations for nudity in scenes.
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Later in 2018, the allegations continued after Franco wore a “Time’s Up” pin for the Golden Globes in support of the #metoo movement encouraging women to speak out about their experiences with sexual misconduct from men. Actress Ally Sheedy took to Twitter to talk about her negative experiences with him along with multiple other actresses.
After these stories first came out, Franco issued a statement where he said the claims regarding Studio 4 were “false and inflammatory.” He also said in an interview that he didn’t know what Sheedy meant in her tweet, but that he wasn’t going to speak out against it because he “believes in the [#metoo movement] that much.”
On February 11, 2021, a tentative settlement was filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court with unknown settlement amounts, but the two women have agreed to drop their individual charges against the actor. It is unknown whether other parts of the lawsuit will still be pursued.
