James Franco, who has faced multiple sexual harassment allegations since 2018, has faded from the film industry for four years after appearing in the American drama ‘The Deuce’ and recently announced that he is joining the new film ‘Me, You’ by Palme d’Or director Bille August.
The film tells the story of a teenage boy haunted by memories of World War II on a remote Italian island after the war, who falls in love with a girl with a dark secret, while meeting a man (James Franco) who claims to be a retired American GI.
In a statement, Franco said, “I am thrilled to be involved in this extraordinary project and to be working with the legendary Bill August. I’m a huge fan of his work and the script for ‘Me, You’ is really great.”
Since 2018, several actresses have accused James Franco of sexual harassment via Twitter, and five female actors have exposed Franco’s “inappropriate behavior” and “sexually exploitative behavior” in interviews with the ‘Los Angeles Times’. “Four were former students of Franco, and one said Franco was her mentor in the past.
The HBO series ‘The Deuce’ starring James Franco and the Coen Brothers film ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ have tried to avoid showing the actor during promotions due to the sex scandal.
In 2019, James Franco’s co-owned acting school was sued by two women, and Franco paid $2.2 million in an out-of-court settlement in 2021.
In a radio interview in December 2021, Franco admitted to having sex with female students, saying, “Starting in 2018, some people were upset with me and I needed to be heard. I was in recovery for substance abuse and had to deal with some issues related to addiction and hopefully used my recovery to change who I was.”
