'F**king bully.' 5 actors who won't work with James Franco.

There are few actors who divide opinion like James Franco.

Once a heartthrob on-screen, Franco was primed to become a prolific actor, winning two Golden Globes and earning an Academy Award nomination for his role in the 2010 biographical drama 127 Hours.

But in 2018, the same year Franco was receiving accolades for his role in The Disaster Artist, five women accused the actor of sexual misconduct including inappropriate or sexually exploitative behaviour. 

At the time of the allegations and his Golden Globe win, actor Ally Sheedy tweeted: "James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/TV business." 

Then in 2019, Franco was faced with a lawsuit over allegations that his acting school "sought to create a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education."

In the years since, Franco has been on an acting hiatus. He was expected to star in the 2022 post-war film You, Me but it appears he departed the project. 

We've rounded up a list of actors with less-than-positive things to say Franco, and who don't plan on working with him any time soon.

Busy Philipps.

Busy Philipps at the 28th Critics' Choice Awards in 2023. Image: Getty.

Busy Philipps has been one of the more vocal celebrities about her bad experiences with Franco.

She met the actor on the 1999 TV series Freaks and Geeks and described one occasion while filming when Franco shoved her to the ground. 

In her 2018 memoir This Will Only Hurt a Little she referred to Franco as a "f**king bully" and alleged he assaulted her after she lightly hit him on the chest during a scripted scene. 

After the scene, she claims James confronted her. 

"He grabbed both my arms and screamed in my face, 'DON’T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!'" Philipps wrote. "And he threw me to the ground. Flat on my back. Wind knocked out of me."

In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter in 2018, Busy said she has since spoken to the actor about the alleged incident.

"James and I have talked about it over the years. At one point he apologised to me. I was always acutely aware of my expendability, and so I felt I needed to never complain," she said.

But following the sexual misconduct allegation that surfaced, Busy confirmed she had no plans to work with him again. 

"I didn’t work with James past age 20, so I can only speak to the horrible behaviour I experienced," she said in a Last Laugh interview. 

"I wouldn’t want to work with someone who has multiple allegations of predatory behaviour. So, in fact, I won’t."

Seth Rogen.

Seth Rogen at the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards in 2023. Image: Getty. 

Seth Rogen and James Franco were once joined at the hip. Throughout the '00s, they starred in multiple movies together including Pineapple Express, This Is the End, and The Interview. 

After the sexual misconduct allegation about Franco came out in 2018, Rogen initially stood by his friend. 

"The truth is that my perspective on this is the least relevant perspective," Rogen told Vulture. 

"I’m friends with these people and I'm a dude. All that combined makes me the last person who should be talking about this."

When Rogen was specifically asked if he would keep working with Franco amid the allegations, he replied, "Yes."

But he changed his tune in 2021, admitting that he mishandled the seriousness of the allegations. 

"What I can say is that I despise abuse and harassment and I would never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that," Rogen told The Sunday Times.

"I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now."

When asked if he's still friends with Franco, Rogen responded, "I don’t know if I can define that right now during this interview. I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic."

Charlyne Yi.

Charlyne Yi at the premiere of Always Be My Maybe in 2019. Image: Getty. 

In 2021, actress Charlyne Yi condemned both Franco and Rogen, who she starred alongside in The Disaster Artist.

She said she tried to quit the film because of the allegations against Franco.

"When I tried to break [my] legal contract and quit Disaster Artist because James Franco is a sexual predator, [producers, including Rogen] tried to bribe me with a bigger acting role. I cried and told them that that was the exact opposite of what I wanted, that I didn’t feel safe working with a f**king sexual predator," she wrote on Instagram. 

"White men saying it’s not their responsibility when holding Franco accountable, or when holding Seth Rogen and enablers accountable. Then whose responsibility is it? The women and children who have PTSD from Franco? Or the future targets of abuse?"

Henry Cavill.

Henry Cavill at the premiere of Enola Holmes 2. Image: Getty. 

This was a wild time in the pop culture cosmos: the time James Franco briefly became a writer for edgy culture site, Vice in 2013.

He attended the premiere of and wrote a review for Henry Cavill's Man of Steel and in the article, he admitted that the two actors did not get along. 

"I don’t think Henry Cavill would have wanted to see me there," Franco wrote.

"Years ago we worked on a film together called Tristan and Isolde. I played Tristan and he played my backstabbing sidekick. My hunch is that he didn’t like me very much. 

"I don’t know this for certain, but I know that I wouldn’t have liked myself back then because I was a difficult young actor who took himself too seriously." 

Tyrese Gibson.

Tyrese Gibson at the Vice premiere in 2019. Image: Getty. 

James Franco and musician/actor Tyrese Gibson met on the set of the 2006 American drama, Annapolis.

Gibson would go on to claim in an interview that during the film's boxing scene, Franco was legitimately hitting Tyrese rather than faking it for the scene. 

"James Franco is a method actor. I respect method actors, but he never snapped out of character. Whenever we’d have to get in the ring for boxing scenes, and even during practice, the dude was full-on hitting me," Gibson told Elle years after. 

"I was always like, 'James, lighten up, man. We’re just practicing.' He never lightened up."

Feature image: Getty.