James Franco Responds To Recent Sexual Misconduct Allegations

The Disaster Artist star has publicly reacted to recent social media posts about his alleged inappropriate sexual behavior.

On Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, James Franco visited The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and took the time to respond to some disturbing claims. When asked by host Stephen Colbert about criticism he faced after wearing a "Time's Up" pin at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards, Franco, who won Best Actor, stated, "Look, I was so excited to win, but being in that room that night was incredible. I mean, it was powerful. There were incredible voices, and I support it."

He continued, "I support change; I support 50-50 in 2020, which just means, you know, people that are underrepresented—women, and people of color, people in the LGBT community—get leadership positions [and] that they fill all positions that they've been deprived of," adding, "I completely believe in that. That's why I wore it."

As for The Breakfast Club actress Ally Sheedy's tweets about Franco, the 39-year-old apparently has no clue as what she's referring to. "OK, first of all: I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy," Franco said. "I directed her in a play off-Broadway. 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."

During the Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 7, Sheedy called out Franco in a series of vague tweets (via Vanity Fair). "Why is a man hosting? Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much," she wrote in one post.

Another read, "Ok wait. Bye. Christian Slater and James Franco at a table on @goldenglobes #MeToo."

Afterwards, she tweeted, "James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business."

Sheedy's since deleted the tweets.

Regarding other accusations surfacing online, Franco claims that they're "not accurate" but doesn't want to silence anyone. "The others, look, in my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I've done. I have to do that to maintain my well-being," Franco explained to Colbert. "I do it whenever I know that there's something wrong or needs to be changed. I make it a point to do it. 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. I don't want to shut them down in any way. It's, I think, a good thing and I support it."

As Rolling Stone reported, actress Violet Paley slammed Franco on Twitter after seeing his "Time's Up" pin, accusing him of once attempting to force her to perform oral sex on him and making advances toward an underage girl. "Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco," she wrote. "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's likely referring to an incident from Franco's past when an Instagram conversation he had, which suggested he was hitting on a 17-year-old girl, was leaked (via E! News). He later addressed the scandal on Live with Kelly and Michael, stating, "I guess I'm just a model of how social media is tricky. It's a way people meet each other today. But what I've learned, I guess just because I'm new to it, is that you don't know who's on the other end."

Responding to Colbert's question about how we can all move the conversation about sexual misconduct forward, Franco stated, in part, "I'm here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it's off. I'm completely willing, and I want to."

While we wait to see what comes of the allegations made against Franco, read about all of the men who've been called out for inappropriate sexual behavior in recent months.