Oscar-nominated actor James Franco, who is known for his performances in the Spider-Man franchise, 127 Hours among other films, has opened up for the first time, around four years after being accused of sexual misconduct by five women at his acting school (now-defunct). He has now admitted sleeping with students of his acting school while teaching and "that was wrong".

Revealing the same recently, in SiriusXM’s The Jesse Cagle podcast, the 43-year-old actor also shared that he struggled with a *** addiction and is working continuously to improve his behaviour. Reportedly, he had developed a *** addiction after becoming sober from an alcohol addiction, developed at a young age. 

According to Reuters, in the podcast, he said, "I suppose at the time, my thinking was if it’s consensual, OK. At the time I was not clearheaded” adding that he was not running the acting school for that purpose.

Talking about his *** addiction, during the podcast, James shared that it became worse with time. "It’s (***) such a powerful drug. I got hooked on it for 20 more years. The insidious part of that is that I stayed sober from alcohol all that time,” the actor further said. 

Since 2016, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes star has been recovering from *** addiction and is changing who he was. 

Now, since he does not want to hurt people, James revealed that he has been working upon himself ever since the allegations were leveled against him.

For the unversed, in October 2019, two ex-students had filed a civil suit against the actor accusing him of exploiting aspiring actors at his acting school. Franco had initially denied the allegations, however, later agreed to settle the suit filed against him by paying $2.2 million. 

On the film front, he made his acting debut with Never Been Kissed in 1999 and went on to feature in various memorable films. In 2011, he co-hosted the Oscar Awards and got nominated at the 2012 ceremony in the Best Actor category for his performance in 127 Hours.

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