James Franco Controversy: A Closer Look After Oscars 2018 Snub

James Franco was not among the best actor Oscar nominees announced Tuesday morning. The snub comes after he earned a Golden Globe Award for his performance in “The Disaster Artist.” After his Academy Award snub, let’s take a closer look at the sexual misconduct controversy that’s been surrounding him since earlier this month.

When Franco won at the Golden Globes, while wearing a Time’s Up pin, a few women decided enough was enough and took to social media to share their thoughts and stories about the actor and his alleged wrongdoings.

“Why is a man hosting?” actress Ally Sheedy, who worked with Franco on the 2014 play “The Long Shrift,” asked in the first of many Golden Globes tweets, all of which have since been deleted (but screenshots can be seen on Vanity Fair). “Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much. Nite love ya.”

She went on to tweet “#MeToo” and then followed that up by suggesting that “The Disaster Artist” actor was a reason why she she no longer wants to be in the entertainment world. “James Franco just won,” she tweeted. “Please never ever ask me why I left the film/TV business.”

Aside from Tweedy, two other women spoke on out on Twitter about their history with the star.

“Hey James Franco, nice #timesup pin at the #GoldenGlobes, remember a few weeks ago when you told me the full nudity you had me do in two of your movies for $100/day wasn’t exploitative because I signed a contract to do it?” one woman, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, tweeted the night of the Golden Globes on Jan. 7. “Times up on that!”

Another woman, Violet Paley, claimed that Franco sexually harassed her.

“Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco,” Paley tweeted the same night as the others. “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?”

In an interview with LA Times, Paley detailed her story, explaining that she had a consensual relationship with Franco, but that this specific moment was different because she felt pressured to give in to what he wanted because “the power dynamic was really off.”

Three other women, aside from Tither-Kaplan and Paley, spoke with the outlet about Franco, giving stories about how he took advantage of his role as an acting teacher and asked some of his students to take of their tops during filming and then became angry when no one wanted to.

The night before this LA Times story was published, Franco appeared on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” and was asked about the allegations made on social media against him, which he claimed were “not accurate,” but said that people “need to be heard.”

“I have my own side of this story, but I believe in these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will hold back things that I could say, just because I believe in it that much,” he told host Seth Meyers. “So if I have to take a knock because I’m not going to try and actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in it that much.”

He said that taking responsibility for things he’s done in his life is important to him, but that “the things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate.” That said, he wanted to make it clear that he supports those coming forward because “they didn’t have a voice for so long, so I don’t want to shut them down in any way.”