James Franco sued over ‘exploitative’ sex scenes at acting school

Two actresses say James Franco pushed his acting students into performing in increasingly ­explicit sex scenes on camera.

The 41-year-old actor’s lawyer said the claims were ill-informed and had ‘already been debunked’. Picture: AP

Two actresses have sued James Franco and the acting and film school he founded, saying he ­intimidated his students into ­gratuitous and exploitative sexual situations far beyond those ­acceptable on Hollywood film sets.

Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, former students at the actor’s now-closed Studio 4, said in the lawsuit filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court that Franco pushed his students into performing in increasingly ­explicit sex scenes on camera in an “orgy-type setting”.

Franco “sought to create a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education”, the suit alleges. The women say students were led to believe roles in Franco’s films would be available to those who went along.

The situations described in the suit arose during a master class in sex scenes that Franco taught at the school, which he opened in 2014 and closed in 2017.

The lawsuit, which also names Franco’s production company Rabbit Bandini and his partners as defendants, includes alle­gations Tither-Kaplan made last year after Franco won a Golden Globe Award for The Disaster Artist. Gaal is speaking out for the first time.

On The Late Show with ­Stephen Colbert last year, Franco called the sexual misconduct ­stories inaccurate, but said, “If I’ve done something wrong, I will fix it. I have to.”

The 41-year-old actor’s lawyer, Michael Plonsker, said the claims were “ill-informed” and had “already been debunked”. “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,” he said.

The lawsuit alleges that to take Franco’s master class, students had to audition by simulating sex acts on film, which he watched to choose candidates.

It says the class began with ­“encouraging female student ­actors to appear topless, then perform in sex scenes, then orgies and gratuitous full nudity”, without the guidelines and closed sets that are industry standard for such scenes.

The suit alleges Gaal was kept out of the master class for questioning its exploitative nature.

Tither-Kaplan took the class and was cast in Rabbit Bandini films, “which she now recognises was a direct result of her willingness to accept Franco’s exploitative behaviour without complaint”.

The suit seeks damages to be determined at trial, an apology and the handover or destruction of video of the plaintiffs. Lawyers for the women are looking for more plaintiffs to join, and for it to become a class action.

Tither-Kaplan recounted her experiences with Franco and the school as one of five women who talked to the Los Angeles Times last year. She was among those who spoke out against Franco when he won his Golden Globe in January last year at a time when the #MeToo movement was surging. She said the Time’s Up lapel pin Franco wore to the ceremony felt like “a slap in my face”.

AP