James Franco

About

James Franco is an American actor best known for his leading role as the underachieving high school student "Daniel Desario" in the short-lived 1999 TV series Freaks and Geeks and other appearances in a number of award-winning films, most notably the 2001 TV biopic film James Deen, the Spider-Man film trilogy and his Academy Award nominated performance in the 2010 drama film 127 Hours, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Acting Career

In 1999, Franco was cast as Daniel Desario in the television series Freaks and Geeks, which gathered a cult following despite being canceled after only eight episodes (shown below, left). In 2001, Franco was cast for the title role in the biographical film James Dean (shown below, right).

In 2002, Franco portrayed the character Harry Osborn in the 2002 superhero film Spider-Man (shown below left) and went on play the same role in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). In 2008, Franco co-wrote and co-starred in the stoner comedy film Pineapple Express (shown below, right).

In 2010, Franco starred in the survival drama film 127 Hours for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor (shown below, left). In 2012, Franco portrayed the rapper Alien in the comedy drama film Spring Breakers (shown below, right).

Online History

In February 2011, Franco created verified accounts on both Facebook^[2] and Twitter,^[3] gaining over 6.4 million likes 1.95 million followers in the next four years respectively. On February 18th, 2011, Franco posted a video to his social media profiles as evidence of his identity (shown below).

On January 24th, 2012, Franco launched a personal Tumblr^[4] blog. On May 16th, 2012, Franco published an article on The Huffington Post^[6] defending himself against an article by New York Observer^[7] writer Drew Grant, which mocked the actor's blog posts.

"Bound 3" Music Video Parody

On November 25th, 2013, Franco and actor Seth Rogen released a shot-for-shot remake of the music video "Bound 2" by rapper Kanye West (shown below). Within five months, the video gathered upwards of 7.9 million views and 11,000 comments. As of April 2014, Franco has received more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram.^[5]

Kimye Vogue Cover Parody

On March 21st, James Franco posted a photoshopped parody of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's Vogue magazine cover featuring himself and fellow actor Seth Rogen to his Instagram^[2] feed (shown below). In the first four days, the post received over 233,000 likes.

Minor Soliciting Scandal on Instagram

On April 1st, 2014, Instagram^[1] user Lucy Clode posted a video of James Franco outside the stage door of the Broadway show Of Mice and Men. That evening, Clode uploaded several screenshots of direct messages and text messages purportedly sent by Franco in a Imgur photo gallery (shown below). During this exchange, Franco asked Clode if she wants to meet in a hotel room, even after learning that she is 17-years-old, and sent selfie photos of himself as proof of his identity (shown below), .

On April 2nd, Franco posted a tweet telling parents to "keep their teens" away from him. In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the scandal, including D Listed,^[9] The Daily Dot,^[10] The Huffington Post,^[11] BuzzFeed,^[12] E Online^[13] and Gawker.^[14] Additionally, the women's interest blog Jezebel^[8] speculated that the controversy may be a viral marketing stunt for his upcoming film Palo Alto, in which Franco portrays a soccer coach who becomes romantically involved with his 14-year-old babysitter.

On the morning of April 4th, Franco appeared on the talk show Live with Kelly and Michael where he admitted to sending the messages saying he was "embarassed" and that "I used bad judgement and learned my lesson" (shown below).

Criticism

Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Accepting his award for Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, James Franco gave his acceptance speech wearing a Times Up button, signaling his support of the victims of sexual misconduct in the work place.

Following his win, however, actress Ally Sheedy tweeted a series of posts, alluding to negative experiences with Franco. Over a three tweets, she wrote, "James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business. Ok wait. Bye. Christian Slater and James Franco at a table on @goldenglobes #MeToo. Why is a man hosting? Why is James Franco allowed in? Said too much. Nite love ya." The tweets were deleted shortly after.

The Daily Beast^[15] suggests that the issue Sheedy is referencing stems from a 2014 off-Broadway production of The Long Shrift, which Sheedy and Franco worked on together.

More women began tweeting allegations about Franco's alleged abuse as a teach of his acting school, Studio 4, as well when working on Franco's directorial projects. Actress Sarah Tither-Kaplan tweeted,^[16] "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? Times up on that!" The tweet (shown below, left) received more than 3,300 retweets and 9,400 likes in four days.

That night, another woman shared a story of alleged sexual misconduct perpetrated by Franco. Twitter user @VioletPaley tweeted,^[17] "Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco. 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?" The post (shown below, right) received more than 12,000 retweets and 30,000 likes in three days.

On January 9th, Franco appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. During which, he discussed the allegations, denying that he acted improperly. "First of all, I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy," he 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.

“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.”

Within two days of being uploaded to YouTube,^[18] the video of Franco's appearance (shown below) has received more than 1.4 million view.

Several days later, on January 11th, the Los Angeles Times^[19] reported that five women, including the two previously mentioned, had accused James Franco of sexually inappropriate behavior. These allegations included women that have been in consensual relationships with Franco, as well as actresses and students that say he put them in sexual inappropriate and uncomfortable positions, such as removing protective guards for movie sets used during simulated sexual acts.

Personal Life

Franco was born on April 19th, 1978 in Palo Alto, California and was raised in a secular and politically liberal household. He has been romantically connected to actresses Marla Sokoloff and Ahna O'Reilly.

Search Interest

External References