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James Franco Admits to Sexual Misconduct With Students

Actor James Franco has responded to allegations of sexual misconduct brought against him nearly four years ago, admitting that he slept with students at his acting school despite previously denying the accusations.

In an appearance on SiriusXM's "The Jess Cagle Podcast," Franco admitted that he did inappropriately sleep with his students at Studio 4.

"Over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students, and that was wrong," he said on the podcast. "But like I said, it's not why I started the school and I wasn't the person that selected the people to be in the class. So it wasn't a 'master plan' on my part. But yes, there were certain instances where, you know what, I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn't have been."

Franco added later: "At the time I was not clearheaded, as I've said. So I guess it just comes down to my criteria was like, 'If this is consensual, like, I think it's cool. We're all adults so….'"

He also tied his conduct at the time to sex addiction, which he says manifested following his becoming sober from alcohol.

"It's such a powerful drug," he said. "I got hooked on it for 20 more years. The insidious part of that is that I stayed sober from alcohol all that time. And I went to meetings all that time. I even tried to sponsor other people. So in my head, it was like, 'Oh, I'm sober. I'm living a spiritual life.' Where on the side, I'm acting out now in all these other ways, and I couldn't see it."

Franco was accused of sexual misconduct and abusing his power as an acting teacher and mentor by multiple women in 2018 in a Los Angeles Times article, as well as a lawsuit that followed in 2019. The various accusations included inappropriate behavior on film sets, exposing himself without consent, removing safety guards during an oral sex scene on a film set, and using his position of power to solicit sexual favors from students. He had previously been accused in 2014 of messaging a 17-year-old on Instagram and suggesting they should get a hotel room together.

At the time the accusations were brought forward, Franco denied them both publicly and via an attorney. He later reached a $2,235,000 settlement with the former students who filed the lawsuit.

Then, earlier this year, long-time collaborator Seth Rogen publicly said he would no longer work with Franco following the allegations, having previously stated he would continue to do so. He added that their personal dynamic had changed over time in light of the allegations.

On his recent podcast appearance, Franco also confirmed he and Rogen had split:

"What he said is true," he said. "We aren’t working together right now and we don’t have any plans to work together. Of course, it was hurtful in context, but I get it, you know, he had to answer for me because I was silent. He had to answer for me and I don’t want that."

Previously, Rogen and Franco had worked on a number of projects such as Pineapple Express and The Interview. Franco more recently starred in HBO drama The Deuce.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Blogroll image credit: Taylor Hill, via Getty Images

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Former Sega Producer Alleges Yuji Naka Helped Kill a Lost Dreamcast Exclusive

Mark Subotnick, who was a producer at Sega of America during the Dreamcast era, claims that producer Yuji Naka was responsible for the cancellation of one of the console's exclusives, Geist Force. On The Retro Hour Podcast, Subotnick shared his version of what really happened behind the scenes regarding the Star Fox-style game.

First reported by Nintendo Life, Geist Force was intended to be a launch title for the Dreamcast in North America but was canceled due to Sega's reported lack of confidence in the title, as well as missed deadlines and internal disagreements. Subotnick says that even though the game was a Star Fox clone, he thought that Geist Force had a cool narrative and a diverse cast. He stated, "Looking back, we were actually ahead of our time."

On one particular day, Subotnick says Naka came to visit and tour the studio. Naka and his team reportedly took a look at all of the studio's engines and tools, including proprietary technology. "I would say still to this day, [we had] some stuff that I haven't seen replicated quite at the level we had," Subotnick explains.

However, Subotnick says Naka assumed that his team didn't understand Japanese, which most of his team was fluent in, including his lead engineer. Naka reportedly started speaking Japanese and talked about which parts of the studio's tech he would take to work on the Sonic franchise. Then, as soon as the studio shipped Geist Force, Subotnick says Naka suggested firing everyone except a single engineer and rolling them into the Sonic team.

Of course, Subotnick's team didn't take too kindly to Naka's alleged comments. The only other studio in North America working on a console like the Dreamcast was Visual Concepts, which was known for NFL 2K and NBA 2K. As such, Subotnick's team exited the company before the game shipped, leaving Subotnick in a predicament.

"I just lost my five lead engineers and I've got a proprietary engine; even if I hire, I've got healthy burn rate," Subotnick explains. "It would have taken me two months to hire, another two months to ramp up... so I've got four months of burn rate where pretty much nothing's happening."

He made a last-ditch effort to approach Visual Concepts to see if they could help out. Due to being busy with their own projects for the Dreamcast, they reportedly declined. As a result, Geist Force ended up being canceled, along with other planned projects for the title, like a range of toys.

Yuji Naka has recently been known for being the creator of Balan Wonderworld, as well as having left Square Enix shortly after its release. Additionally, he is now an indie game developer.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey