Lex Gabrielle
With the ongoing conversation surrounding women and the various movements to empower them to come forward and speak up about sexual assault, harassment, and violence, more stories have been coming to light of men’s wrongdoings.
After the allegations against newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, actress Busy Philipps had opened up that she was raped at 14-years-old. Now, in her new memoir, This Will Only Hurt A Little, she is calling out actor James Franco for assault when the two were co-starring in the 90s TV show Freaks and Geeks together.
Philipps played Franco’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, on the show, and claimed that Franco was a “bully” on the set of the teenage drama. She claims that the assault took place while filming a scene that she had to “push” Franco. Franco had, apparently, not been told about the pushing instructions and thought Philipps was pushing him on her own–to which he responded by breaking character and getting violently aggressive with Philipps.
Philipps recalled:
“He grabbed both my arms and screamed in my face, ‘DON’T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!’” She added, “And he threw me to the ground. Flat on my back. Wind knocked out of me.”
Philipps recalled, additionally, that she told her co-star Linda Cardellini about the incident, and, that Cardellini told her to report the incident to her manager. However, Franco was forced to apologize by directors and producers, and Philipps dropped it. She was, however, surprised that Franco had not had any further consequences to physically assaulting her on the set of her job.
This isn’t the first time that James Franco has been accused of assault and misconduct, as a reminder. Earlier this year, five different women came forward accusing him of sexually inappropriate behavior, after he had come forward as a “Time’s Up” ally. After Philipps shared her story of assault, the women began reminding people on Twitter of Franco’s other wrongdoings.
Remember when I, along with 7 other young non famous women over the year, came forward about James Franco & and we got death threats? Is #timesup yet?
— Violet Paley (@VioletPaley) October 8, 2018
six accusations and james franco still got a career, literally dont ever wanna hear accusations ruin a man’s life pic.twitter.com/acoLlw00jm
— pine (@dracaras) October 8, 2018
Fun fact about James Franco: assault/harassment allegations have been out there for years!! pic.twitter.com/35ay5qKxVv
— Caroline Darya Framke (@carolineframke) October 8, 2018
Franco has not responded to the allegations against him from Philipps thus far.
