James Franco Is 'No Harvey Weinstein'

James Franco won't be competing for an Oscar for his work on The Disaster Artist, and that's likely because he's been accused of sexual misconduct by five women, most of whom were once students at Franco's acting school. One of those women, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, said in an interview this week that Franco should not be compared to infamous abuser Harvey Weinstein, but he should apologize to the women he offended. In the meantime, the Oscar nomination snub seems to indicate that the accusations will have a serious and lasting effect on Franco's career.

Via Page Six.

Even those accusing James Franco of sexual misconduct don’t necessarily think he’s a monster.

“James is absolutely not a Harvey Weinstein,” Sarah Tither-Kaplan said on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. “He’s not an unfeeling monster who has no sense of reality.”

However, Tither-Kaplan, 26, does believe that Franco, 39, abused his power and influence when teaching at his Studio 4 film school, which made her and four other women who accused the actor of sexual harassment afraid to speak out for years.

“I’m shaking,” she said. “Being an actor and working in this industry has been my dream since I was 5 or 6, and I knew that coming forward with this was risking my career.”

Tither-Kaplan reiterated that when she was in Franco’s sex scenes course at the Studio 4 school in Los Angeles, many women felt uncomfortable with the work.

“There were a lot of scenes that were added after we were given the original scripts that I felt — I wished I had more time to consider them or understand the artistic value of them,” she explained. “A lot of times they seemed gratuitous or exploitative … He created an exploitative environment on his sets.”

Get the rest of the story at Page Six.

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