James Franco has acknowledged what was already an open secret: his inappropriate sexual behavior with several of the students he taught at his acting school. The young women denounced in court the harassment to which they had been subjected almost four years ago, while the American denied the facts. Up to now.
Franco has spoken on SiriusXM‘s The Jess Cagle Podcast about his addiction to his sex, where he has finally revealed that he slept with several of his students and his inappropriate behavior.
“In the course of my teaching, I slept with the students and that was wrong” declared the interpreter.
“I guess at that moment my thinking was that if it was consensual it was fine. At that moment, I was not lucid“
His addiction to his sex came as a response to keep his alcoholism at bay, a problem that he had dragged from a young age.
“It’s such a powerful drug. It got me hooked for over 20 years. The malicious part is that I stayed sober from alcohol during that time and went to meetings. I even tried to sponsor other people. So in my head it was like I was living a spiritual life“.
During this time, Franco was not aware of the harm he could do to other people. In 2018, several women denounced in an article for the Los Angeles Times everything that happened with the actor, while they filed a lawsuit before the judge in 2019.
Among the accusations were some such as the use of his influence to request sexual favors from his students and the pressure to perform more explicit sexual scenes. After denying the facts, he reached an agreement for a payment of more than 2 million dollars.
The actor also admits to having been trying his addiction to his sex in recent years to change who he was and apologizes to everyone: “I did not want to hurt anyone” This affected his own career and his relationship with Seth Rogen, who has broken all ties with him.
“It was painful, but I understand. He had to answer for me, because I was silent. It’s one of the main reasons I wanted to talk to you today …. I don’t want Seth, my brother, or anyone else to have to vouch for me“.