James Franco ‘trying to move on’ years after sexual assault allegations

James Franco leaves the past in the past.

The 46-year-old actor spoke about this. Diversity ahead of the premiere of his film at the Rome Film Festival Hey Joe revealing what it was like to go from beloved star to Hollywood outcast after he accused of sexually inappropriate behavior five women, four of whom were his acting students. (Franco settled the claim with two women in 2021.)

“I mean, it is what it is,” he said in an interview published Oct. 25. “I went through it honestly. This was dealt with and I had to change. That’s it, it’s over. I mean, I worked in the US too. So I’m just trying to move on.”

Freaks and Geeks The alum also told the publication that it “hurts” to be “told that you’re bad,” adding, “But ultimately that’s what I needed to just stop going down the path I was going down.”

“So now, after a pause and, I guess, a change in priorities, I think what I strive to accomplish in life is (different),” Franco continued.

As a result of that pause, he added, “Ultimately, I think I’m kind of grateful because it gave me the opportunity to just do any private work and really change the things that I need to change.”

“So now that I’m working, I can just be there for the project,” said This is the end said the actor. “It’s not about me trying to fill some hole with work, it’s just about, ‘Wow, I really have a great life. I am very grateful and hope to serve whatever project I do.” ”

Although he didn’t work during the trial, “I definitely used that time, hopefully for a good purpose,” Franco said. Diversity. “And whatever happened to me before, I had to change my whole lifestyle.”

“So I’m proud of the work I did during that time. And yes, I didn’t work in film, but I definitely did a lot of work to change myself,” he explained.

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Franco previously broke his silence on sexual assault allegations against him in December 2021, nearly four years after they were made.

“There were people who were upset with me, and I needed to listen to them,” he said in part during a wide-ranging interview on SiriusXM. Jess Cagle Podcast. “There’s a writer called Damon Young, and he talked about how when something like this happens, the natural human instinct is to just stop it. made. But what it doesn’t do. allows you to get the job doneand see what’s underneath.”

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“No matter what you did, even if it was a mistake, or you said something wrong, or whatever, there is probably an iceberg behind these behaviors, patterns, just blindness to yourself that cannot be solved in overnight,” he said.

“So, I’ve just done a lot of work,” Franco told Cagle, “and I think I’m pretty confident in saying something like: four yearsYou know? I used to be in recovery for substance abuse. There were some issues that I had to face that were also related to addiction. And so I really used my experience in recovery to start exploring that and changing who I was.”