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Published 14:47 09 Oct 2018 GMT
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Published 10:41 16 Jun 2026 GMT
James Franco has sparked concern after appearing in a string of unusual TikTok videos.
The 48-year-old actor, who largely disappeared from mainstream Hollywood following sexual misconduct allegations that emerged in 2018, appears to have launched an account on the social media platform.
In one video, Franco can be seen pacing around a room while wearing a blue shirt bearing the name "Bruce Robinson".
The clip has prompted some viewers to question whether it could be AI-generated, a suggestion the actor directly addresses.
"Hey guys, this is James Franco. Me, really James Franco. I’m here at my house. I’m not promoting anything, OK? I’m making this account because, all right, some serious, some serious s**t's going on," he said. "OK, and look here, this is real. OK, I’m real. It’s me, not AI, not anything. OK? Could AI James do this?"
Franco then writes his account name, @jamesfranco2319, on a piece of paper before continuing his message.
"This is me. OK. For those who know. All right. Some serious stuff going on; that’s why I’m contacting you, that’s why I’m doing this. OK? I know, I maybe seem crazy, like, why, what’s going on, what’s the gimmick? No, this is real. Real.
"OK, I can’t say too much right now. I just need you to follow me, then I’ll know who’s down, and I’m going to show you some crazy stuff. OK? Just follow me, I’m gonna, I’m going to show you," he said.
Despite Franco insisting the videos are genuine and not AI-generated, many viewers were left worried by his behavior.
"Is he okay?" one person asked. Another commented: "James. I’m really worried. You’ve been in the same clothes for a few days now." A third added: "Friend, are you ok? You seems quite confused."
Others were convinced the cryptic videos were part of a promotional campaign, with several speculating Franco could be teasing a movie project called Love Meets In The Sunshine.
"This seriously better not be a movie promo because the hints you’re using are serious. I really really hope you are not using this as a movie promo," one viewer wrote.
Franco spent much of the 2000s and 2010s as one of Hollywood's most recognizable stars, appearing in films including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, Pineapple Express, and 127 Hours.
However, his career was dramatically impacted after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced in 2018.
A lawsuit filed against the actor was later settled out of court in 2021. Franco denied the allegations at the time, though he later discussed them publicly.
Since then, he has remained largely out of the spotlight, making only occasional appearances in lower-budget independent productions while his long-standing friendship with actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen came to an end.
The Spring Breakers star's return to social media comes shortly after Rogen was once again asked about the breakdown of their relationship.
The pair first met while starring in the cult television series Freaks and Geeks in 1999 before becoming one of Hollywood's most successful comedy duos, working together on projects including This Is the End, The Interview, and The Disaster Artist.
After Franco admitted to sleeping with students at his acting school, Rogen publicly distanced himself from his longtime collaborator and has repeatedly stated that he does not intend to work with him again.
Speaking to The New York Times earlier this week, the 44-year-old Canadian star acknowledged that the subject remains deeply personal.
"I’m trying to think how much I want to personally share about this," he said. "I honestly think the nuance of it is too personal for me to get into right now. It is a very personal thing.
"There’s the public-facing side of it, which I’ve spoken about, and I have the same stance publicly that I’ve had, and I think the proof is in the pudding – I have not worked with him in years," Rogen continued. "But the personal side of it is just so nuanced, and it involves people that I don’t know if I should be dragging into this.
"I don’t know what I would benefit from getting deeply into it. Nothing has changed since the last time I talked about all this, and I haven’t worked with him in a really long time, and I have no plans to," he added.
Published 14:50 04 Oct 2019 GMT
James Franco has been accused of sexual misconduct by two of his former acting students.
Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal claim that at the actor's now-defunct acting school, the 41-year-old tried to "create a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education."
According to the lawsuit, it "led to an environment of harassment and sexual exploitation both in and out of the class."
The lawsuit against the actor was filed in Los Angeles. It states that the alleged crimes took place at Studio 4, which operated between 2014 and 2017.
Franco allegedly charged Kaplan and Gaal $750 each to take part in a sex scene masterclass, where they were encouraged to appear topless. Everything which took place at the class was allegedly filmed by the actor for later review.
In January 2018, the LA Times reported that one of Franco's former student said he "would always make everybody think there were possible roles on the table if we were to perform sexual acts or take off our shirts."
The lawsuit states that female students were forced to participate in explicit sex scenes "that went far beyond the standards in the industry."
The women now want the alleged footage of themselves to be destroyed, appropriate damages, and an apology from Franco and his associates.
A representative for the actor released a statement on Thursday regarding the allegations, stating: "This is not the first time that these claims have been made and they have already been debunked."
"We have not had an opportunity to review the ill-informed complaint in-depth since it was leaked to the press before it was filed and our client has yet to even be served.
James will not only fully defend himself, but will also seek damages from the plaintiffs and their attorneys for filing this scurrilous publicity-seeking lawsuit."
Published 17:46 22 Dec 2021 GMT
James Franco has broken his silence about sexual misconduct allegations made against him nearly four years ago.
The actor, 43, was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by five women, four of whom were his acting students, in an article published by The Los Angeles Times in January 2018.
That same month, one of the alleged victims, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, told Good Morning America that Franco "abused his power by exploiting the non-celebrity women that he worked with under the guise of giving them opportunities."
The Oscar nominee opened his acting school Playhouse West Studio 4 in 2014 before it closed in 2017.
Watch James Franco speak out:At the time, an attorney for Franco denied each of the allegations and cited the actor's 2018 comments on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as his formal denial.
"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," his statement read.
However this past summer, Franco reached a deal with Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal — two of his former acting students who filed a sexual misconduct lawsuit against him in 2019.
Now, Franco has finally spoken out about the allegations and is coming clean about his wrongdoings.
"In 2018, there were some complaints about me and an article about me and, at that moment I just thought 'I'm gonna be quiet. I'm gonna be, I'm gonna pause.' Did not seem like the right time to say anything," he said on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Podcast.
He went on: "There were people that were upset with me and I needed to listen. There's a writer Damon Young and he talked about when something like this happens, the natural human instinct is to just make it stop.
"You just want to get out in front of it and whatever you have to do apologize, you know, get it done. But what that doesn't do is allow you to do the work to, and to look at what was underneath.
"Whatever you did, even if it was a gaff or you said something wrong or whatever, there's probably an iceberg underneath that behavior, of patterning, of just being blind to yourself that isn't gonna just be solved overnight."
The Spider-Man actor continued: "So I've just been doing a lot of work, and I guess I'm pretty confident in saying like, four years, you know? I was in recovery before for substance abuse. There were some issues that I had to deal with that were also related to addiction. And so I've really used my recovery background to kind of start examining this and changing who I was."
Franco revealed he has struggled with sex addiction for years after becoming sober from alcohol at a young age. "It's such a powerful drug," he explained.
"I got hooked on it for 20 more years. The insidious part of that is that I stayed sober from alcohol all that time. And I went to meetings all that time. I even tried to sponsor other people. So in my head, it was like, 'Oh, I'm sober. I'm living a spiritual life.' Where on the side, I'm acting out now in all these other ways, and I couldn't see it."
Franco's former students, Tither-Kaplan and Gaal, also alleged that the circumstances "led to an environment of harassment and sexual exploitation both in and out of the class." As part of the deal reached this year, Tither-Kaplan and Gaal agreed to drop their individual claims.
Franco admitted to Cagle: "I did sleep with students.
"Over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students, and that was wrong. But like I said, it's not why I started the school and I wasn't the person that selected the people to be in the class."
He added: "So it wasn't a 'master plan' on my part. But yes, there were certain instances where, you know what, I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn't have been.
"At the time I was not clearheaded, as I've said. So I guess it just comes down to my criteria was like, 'If this is consensual, like, I think it's cool. We're all adults so….'"
Actor, James Franco, has been accused of physical assault by his former co-star, Busy Phillips.
The pair starred in the cult 90's television show, Freaks and Geeks, together, which is where the alleged incident occurred.
The actress, who has since gone onto star in Cougar Town and I Feel Pretty, has a memoir coming out this week, titled This Will Only Hurt a Little. In it, Phillips recalls a scene in Freaks and Geeks where she lightly hit Franco, and he was caught "off guard".
Playing Kim Kelly, the on-again-off-again love interest to Franco's Daniel Desario, the New York Post reports that the line Phillips said was "Dammit Daniel, do SOMETHING", and that it was to be delivered while hitting his chest.
"He grabbed both my arms and screamed in my face, 'DON'T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!'" she claims in the book.
Phillips then goes onto state that the cast and crew were horrified, with her co-star and friend Linda Cardellini suggesting that she contact her manager after "sobbing" in her trailer.
Franco reportedly apologised the following day, after he was told to do so by directors and producers. Aside from that, Phillips says that Franco was not given any further punishment. "James was full of bad behaviour, so why would this be treated any differently," she wrote.
This is not the first time that Phillips has spoken about the incident. Back in 2016, while appearing on Watch What Happens Live, she told host Andy Cohen that although she and Franco are now amicable, there was ongoing tension while filming the teen comedy-drama.
"He felt like he wanted his character to be one way. He had had a discussion with the producers that he came from an abused family or something, and so he didn’t want his girlfriend — I played his girlfriend — to ever physically hit him," she said.
"I never knew this conversation existed, and in an improv, I smacked him on the thing, and he was like, 'Don’t ever touch me,' and grabbed me and shoved me to the ground. It was an overreaction by a 19-year-old dude. And it was weird and people’s agents had to be called and he had to apologize to me."
Published 11:26 12 Apr 2021 GMT
Charlyne Yi has branded James Franco a "sexual predator" and Seth Rogen an "enabler" in an explosive Instagram post.
Yi worked with Franco and Rogen on the 2017 Oscar-nominated movie The Disaster Artist which Franco also directed.
The 35-year-old actress claimed that producers on the film "bribed" her when she tried to leave the project due to allegations surrounding Franco.
Taking to Instagram on April 8 to share a lengthy post on the matter, she wrote: "When I tried to break legal contract & quit Disaster Artist because James Franco is a sexual predator, they tried to bribe me with a bigger acting role.
"I cried and told them that that was the exact opposite of what I wanted, that I didn’t feel safe working with a f**king sexual predator. They minimized and said Franco being a predator was so last year and that he changed… when I literally heard of him abusing new women that week."
She went on to say that "predators will perform empathy, gaslight, & say they will do better – all in order to protect themselves and continue to harm others."
Yi continued: "White men saying it's not their responsibility when holding Franco accountable, or when holding Seth Rogen and enablers accountable. Then whose responsibility is it? The women and children who have PTSD from Franco? Or the future targets of abuse?"
According to Yi's caption for the post, Rogen, 38, was one of the movie's producers and "he definitely knows about the bribe and why I quit."
She added: "Seth also did a sketch on SNL with Franco enabling Franco preying on children. Right after Franco was caught. Franco has a long history of preying on children. This is on top all the corrupt laws that protect predators made by violent white men."
Later on in the caption, Yi explained: "Denying/gaslighting is a tactic that abusers and enablers use that is psychological violence, & has serious affects: the survivor loses sense of reality/intuition to protect self from targeted again, PTSD, suicidal thoughts/suicide, etc."
She concluded the post by explaining that as it's Sexual Assault Awareness Month, men should be educating themselves on how to protect women, nonbinary people and trans people.
Per Page Six, in 2018, five women, four of whom were Franco's acting students, accused the 42-year-old actor of sexual misconduct. Earlier this year, a settlement was agreed as part of a lawsuit accusing the actor of taking advantage of his student in a sexual manner.
In 2014, Franco allegedly contacted a 17-year-old fan on social media about meeting up in a hotel. Franco later defended himself, saying he acted like a "gentleman" and didn’t know how old she was.
VT has contacted Franco's reps for comment.
Published 16:24 29 Apr 2026 GMT
James Franco's co-star has alleged that she tried to quit starring in The Disaster Artist and called the actor a "sexual predator" in a scathing social media post.
Charlyne Yi, who appeared in the 48-year-old's 2017 film as costume designer Safowa Bright-Asare, detailed the claims in a series of Instagram posts shared during Sexual Assault Awareness Month back in 2021.
According to the 40-year-old actress, she attempted to "break legal contract" and quit the movie, but said her objections were brushed aside.
She claimed filmmakers "minimized" her concerns and "said Franco being a predator was so last yr and that he changed… when I literally heard of him abusing new women that week".
Yi also alleged she was offered a larger role to remain involved, calling it "the exact opposite of what I wanted".
Beyond Franco, Yi directed sharp criticism at those she says enabled sexual misconduct, specifically naming producer Seth Rogen among those who should be held responsible.
"Enablers are just as toxic and are abusers too," she wrote. "Disgusted by white men choosing power over protecting children and women from predators. Educate, organize, and dismantle corruption in your circles and in the law."
She continued: "White men saying it’s not their responsibility when holding Franco accountable, or when holding Seth Rogen and enablers accountable. Then whose responsibility is it? The women and children who have PTSD from Franco? Or the future targets of abuse?"
In a caption accompanying the post, the House actress expanded on those accusations, writing: "Seth Rogen was one of the producers on this film, so he definitely knows about the bribe and why I quit."
"Seth also did a sketch on ‘SNL’ with Franco enabling Franco preying on children. Right after Franco was caught," she continued. "Franco has a long history of preying on children. This is on top all the corrupt laws that protect predators made by violent white men."
A few months after Yi’s claims, Franco admitted he had used fame "as a lure" in a candid interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show.
The Spring Breakers star revealed in his first interview since his sexual misconduct allegations surfaced that he slept with students at his acting school, Studio 4, and said he had been "completely blind" to "power dynamics" and "people’s feelings," cited by Deadline.
"Along the road of trying to get success and climb the top of that mountain, attention from women, success with women also became a huge source of validation for me," he said. "The problem with that is…like any sort of drug or anything, there’s never enough. It was never-ending."
Reflecting on addiction and behavior that spiraled beyond his control, Franco added: "So in my head it was like, ‘Oh, I’m sober. I’m living a spiritual life,' where on the side I’m acting out now in all these other ways, and I couldn’t see it."
Addressing allegations that the school functioned as "to create a pipeline of young women who would be subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation," Franco denied there was ever a "master plan".
However, he admitted that he "was not clear-headed" and had wrongly justified relationships with students because they were "consensual".
The Interview star also called naming one of his classes "Sex Scenes" as "one of the stupidest things" he had done.
"It should have been called ‘Contemporary Romance’ or something like that," Franco said. "It was a class where they did scenes about romances…what they go through as young people - so, meeting people on dating apps, or breakups, or just a bad date, stuff like that."
Franco also addressed why he stayed silent for years, saying: "There were people that were upset with me...and I needed to listen."
He explained: "What that doesn’t do is allow you to do the work and to look at what was underneath. Whatever you did…there’s probably an iceberg underneath that of behavior, of patterning, of just being blind to yourself that isn’t going to just be solved overnight.
"So, I’ve just been doing a lot of work and I’m pretty confident in saying, [it’s been] four years… I’ve really used my recovery background to start examining this and changing who I was," he added.
While he said he never intended "to hurt people," he acknowledged his behavior escalated to a point where he was "hurting everybody." That included Rogen, who has said he has no plans to work with Franco again.
"I just want to say, I absolutely love Seth Rogen… He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator, and we just gelled, and what he said is true. We aren’t working together right now, and we don’t have any plans to work together," he said.
"Because I was silent, he had to answer for me, and I don’t want that. That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to talk to you today, is I just don’t want Seth or my brother or anyone to have to answer for me anymore," he concluded.
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