In a new interview with Good Morning America, Violet Paley and Sarah Tither-Kaplan – two women who have accused James Franco of sexual misconduct – say they would like the actor to apologize for his alleged inappropriate behavior. The women previously spoke to The Los Angeles Times along with three others and accused Franco of misconduct that happened on and off movie sets. According to The L.A. Times, the actor's lawyer has disputed all allegations.
As Tither-Kaplan told GMA on Tuesday, Franco was "exploiting non-celebrity women that he worked with under the guise of giving them opportunities." She took a master class of Franco's called "Sex Scenes," and in retrospect, wished she had "more time to consider" the scripts and understand "the artistic value" of sex and nude scenes. "A lot of the time they seemed gratuitous and exploitative."
Of where Franco stands in the spectrum of sexual misconduct in wake of the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements, Tither-Kaplan told GMA, "James is absolutely not a Harvey Weinstein. He is not an unfeeling monster who has no sense of reality. He created an exploitative environment for non-celebrity women on his sets." She later added, "He's not unforgiveable person, at least for me."
Paley, who tweeted about Franco's #TimesUp pin on the night of the Golden Globes, says while it was "impulsive" of her to write the tweet, she's "regretful" of continuing a consensual and sexual relationship with the actor after he allegedly pressured her into performing an oral sex act. "I was young, he was a celebrity that I looked up to," she said on GMA.
Franco has not responded to the GMA interview. His team offered no comments to GMA and referred to his Jan. 9 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. (The L.A. Times story was published two days later.) At the time, Franco said that the accusations made on Twitter were "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. I don't want to shut them down in any way. I think it's a good thing and I support it."
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