Four years after the accusations of sexual assault leveled against him, James Franco broke his silence, Wednesday, December 22, during the episode of "Jess Cagle Podcast", broadcast on SiriusXM.
He returned to facts that occurred in January 2018, when five women, four of whom were at the time students in his drama school, accused him of sexual misconduct in the columns of the
Los Angeles Times.
.
A lawsuit was filed by two of them, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal - against James Franco in October 2020. Following a deal, the actor paid a settlement of $ 2.2 million to its alleged victims.
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In this podcast, James Franco confessed that he slept well with students while he was a teacher. And said, to have become, at the time, "completely blind to the dynamics of power" between men and women and to "people's feelings". The actor also revealed that he suffered at the time from a sex addiction, which would have succeeded an addiction to alcohol, developed when he was younger.
Lawyers for the alleged victims sharply criticized these statements Thursday, December 23. They saw it as an minimization of the facts and a lack of remorse. “Besides being blind to the dynamics of power, Franco is completely unresponsive to, and apparently still doesn't care, the immense pain and suffering he inflicted on his victims with this drama school sham. Said a spokesperson for two law firms, representing two of the victims.
"It is incredible that even after agreeing to a settlement, he continues to downplay the experiences of the survivors and ignore their pain," the spokesperson also told
TMZ
media
.
Sarah Tither-Kaplan, one of the victims who lodged a complaint in 2020, also tweeted on December 22: “Apologies don't make sense until active harm reduction measures are taken and directed specifically to the survivors. ”
Before adding: “General statements of 'sorry' or 'I was wrong' or 'I like women' etc.
do nothing to actually help those who have been injured. "
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