Gotta admit I feel for these guys. I mean you put years of your time, blood sweat and tears into getting a show on the air, and then the lead actor runs a risk of getting Spacey’d out and killing the whole fucking thing.
The teacher-student dynamic is always sketchy, and of course the specific accusations that he denies sound really bad. For those we might be at the beginning of the deny-admit cycle. I wouldn’t buy stock in James Franco.
For the other things the women are saying, well, good luck with that. No one’s solving the supply and demand problem for actresses in Hollywood that compels them to nude scenes. And over-eager boyfriends whipping it out at annoying times is going to take some serious re-wiring in society.
If only it was just boyfriends.
Maybe this’ll finally get that gobshite off the air.
Tim_N
2069
I very rarely enjoy reading tweet chains, but that was a good one with a happy ending. Thanks for posting it.
I read the transcript, and it’s pretty thorough. I am a bit shaken by his actions. It upset me.
This was the reason he was fired from community, which now makes a lot more sense.
Oghier
2071
It’s a stupid, offensive comment. But people make stupid, offensive comments from time to time. Should they be career-enders? This thread is filled with rapes and ‘if you want a job, have sex with me’ situations. This dude said something offensive about a famous woman.
Of course, if there’s some long-running pattern here, and he’s been grabbing the asses of his interns or something, that’s different. But there’s no hint of that.
Not always, this is true, and I think the comment in question doesn’t quite rise to that level in a vacuum. Although I’ll side with @charmtrap in that Matthews really annoys me and I’d love to see him replaced. His show comes off as almost pure dogma with too little thought for my tastes. Maybe I just keep hoping to see more Maddows out there.
Djscman
2073
Was he just joking about how hi-larious it would be to drug a First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, and presidential candidate? Or was he joking about how fun and easy it was to actually drug her, like a confession?
Oghier
2074
Heck if I know – I didn’t hear the context. It’s stupid either way. But people say stupid things sometime, and you can’t call for someone’s head every time it happens.
Guap
2075
That Franco one is pretty funny. He hired acting students (not even real actresses) to be stripper extras in a strip club scene. Then during filming he asked all of them at the same time if one of them wanted to go topless for the scene. As a stripper in a strip club scene. The quote from the actress was gold:. “I thought he thought I was hired for my talent but it turns out I was hired because I have nice breasts.”
Oh the humanity.
rowe33
2076
I suppose it’d be cool if he pressured actresses to fuck him if they were playing prostitutes too, right?
Guap
2077
So you’ve never seen a background character in a movie without all their clothes on? How do you think they get people to do that? You ask them at some point right?
Maybe we should have no more nakedness in movies to make sure everyone is 100% comfortable. Or maybe if you want to be taken seriously as a thespian you might not want to play “Stripper #2”. Or maybe it’s complicated. I think conflagating these things is not productive, but of course you are free to make your own movies.
Nesrie
2078
Or maybe he should be frank about the possibility before the filming. Why wait until during the filming, when they’re there to ask.
I don’t care if they are students or not. Women deserve respect, always, and the way someone asks a woman to undress matters. I mean seriously, this guy has 5 women coming forward. He’s doing something wrong.
Guap
2079
I don’t know. I’ve never made a movie with a scene in a strip club. I’m not privy to the ins and outs of how you ask people to be filmed in exchange for money. The entire industry is weird to me, so judge it however you want.
It feels like anything beside outright scorn for anyone accused of anything but anyone is met with derision and disbelief. I guess it’s not even worth it to engage or question or look into the details. Have fun with your mob!
Nesrie
2080
Completely unnecessary.
People in the industry are responding to this and you don’t seem to care what someone like Ashley Judd said but yeah, pretend like you care what people with knowledge say.
Guap
2081
To be honest I was commenting on how stupid the whole or thing sounded. I admit I don’t go into the weeds with who said what with every accusation. Guilty until proven innocent, but it’s no skin off my back.
And Ashley Judd has nothing whatsoever to do with Franco. She wasn’t there, she doesn’t know any of these people. She praised his response. Yay!
My understanding is that when a part requires nudity it’s a pretty upfront thing. If the role is ‘stripper #1’ I think an actress might have some idea what’s coming, but I would also think a quality production would make sure all such requirements were explicitly understood in advance.
