James Franco breaks the silence: “I cheated on all my girlfriends and slept with the students”

He was one step away from the Oscar and already looking forward to the speech on stage, after winning the Golden Globe. Yet in a few days, in 2018, not only that dream vanished but all the dreams (of glory) and not that James Franco, as an actor, director and screenwriter, he had caressed. Five women (including four students of his film classes, in particular the courses entitled Sex scenes) they accused him of harassment and since then nothing has been known about him, except that it seems he reached a plea bargain with which he compensated two of them (People speaks of a figure of over two million dollars, ratified last February).

Until now, when the 43-year-old Californian finally broke the silence. During a river interview per The Jess Cagle Podcast he confessed his addiction to sex, to be able to live peacefully the relationship with Isabel Pakzad, which has been going on since November 2017.

One of the accusers, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, tweeted after the statements: “The apologies are meaningless until concrete measures are taken in favor of the survivors. Making a general fine with ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I was wrong’ or ‘I love women’ and so on is not going to help people who have been hurt. When abusers exclude victims from their talk, they cause even greater pain. Removing the survivor from the trial is still a concrete problem ».

The actor, during the first statements in four years, tried to explain the causes of his impulses: “I’ve had girlfriends, ”he said – but I’ve never been faithful. I betrayed them all before Isabel. ‘ Immediately afterwards he added: “But I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Specifically, the actor explained that he slept with the students: “During the period of my teaching I had sex with it but it was wrong. It was certainly not the reason with which I started teaching and it was certainly not I who selected the students, this was not part of my upstream plan. AND in some circumstances the sex was consensual, now I know that it shouldn’t have happened ”.

The confession continues in detail: “As a kid, I was addicted to alcohol. I got into a lot of trouble, right down to sobriety at 17. When I didn’t need the bottle to fill that void, I started saying to myself: “Great: I am successful, I get attention”. But then I became addicted to that consensus or fame or whatever it was. “

Reaching the summit in Hollywood, however, cost him very, very dearly: “Along the way to achieving success to climb that mountain (of glory, ed.), attention from women, in short, success with women, has become a huge source of gratification. The problem with this, as you can easily guess, is that you can’t get enough of it. I’m still trying to fill that void and it never fills up. ‘

In the meantime, many have tried to help him, including its sponsor to Alcoholics Anonymous, but to no avail on his part: “He said to me: ‘Cheating is dishonest, it’s not good for you to stay sober. But if you don’t go out with anyone and you just want sex, then what happens between two adults is consensual. ‘ Too bad, the actor admits, he decided to take that advice a little too literally: “I used it as an alibi to have sex anytime, anywhere.”

Last May one of his closest friends, Seth Rogen said he hadn’t worked with Franco for years and not having any intention of starting over. At the time the actor did not want to comment, but now he does: “What he said is true, we have no longer collaborated and there are no plans for it to happen in the future.” After a pause he added: “(Seth) had to answer for me too, since I didn’t say a word. He had to, not that I wanted to. And that’s one of the main reasons for today’s interview, because I don’t want him or my brother (Dave) or anyone else to answer for me over and over. ‘