James Franco Says He’s ‘Honestly Moved Past’ His Controversies: ‘It Is What It Is’

Mar. 15, 2025

James Franco in Rome on Oct. 25, 2024.Photo:Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty

Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty

James Francois leaving the past in the past.

“I mean, it is what it is," he said in the interview published on Oct. 25. “I’ve honestly moved past it. It was dealt with, and I got to change. So that’s it, it’s over. I mean, I’ve worked in the U.S. too. So I’m just trying to move on.”

TheFreaks and Geeksalum also told the outlet that it’s “painful” to be “told you’re bad,” adding, “But ultimately, that’s kind of what I needed to just stop going the way I was going.”

“So now, after having the pause and, I think, changing priorities, I guess what I seek to fulfill me in life [is different],” Franco continued.

James Franco in 2017.Getty

Getty

As a result of having that pause, he added, “Ultimately, I think I’m kind of grateful because it did afford me a chance to just do whatever private work and really change what I need to change.”

“So now that I am working, I can just be there for the project,” theThis Is the Endactor said. “It’s not about me trying to fill some hole with work, it’s just about, ‘Wow, I have a really great life. I’m very grateful, and I hope to serve whatever project I do.’ "

While he didn’t work during the lawsuit, “I did certainly use the time to, I hope, good purpose,” Franco toldVariety.“And whatever had been going on with me before, I had to change my whole way of life.”

“So I am proud of the kind of work I did during that time. And yeah, I wasn’t working in movies, but I certainly was doing a lot of work to change who I was,” he explained.

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James Franco in 2018.Kevin Winter/Getty

Franco previously broke his silence about the sexual-misconduct allegations against him in December 2021, nearly four years after they were made.

“There were people that were upset with me and I needed to listen,” he said in part during a wide-ranging interview on SiriusXM’sThe Jess Cagle Podcast. “There’s a writer Damon Young and he talked about when something like this happens, the natural human instinct is to just make it stop. You just want to get out in front of it and whatever you have to do apologize, you know, get it done. But what that doesn’t dois allow you to do the work to, and to look at what was underneath.”

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“Whatever you did, even if it was a gaff or you said something wrong or whatever, there’s probably an iceberg underneath that behavior, of patterning, of just being blind to yourself that isn’t gonna just be solved overnight,” he said.

“So I’ve just been doing a lot of work,” Franco told Cagle, “and I guess I’m pretty confident in saying like,four years, you know? I was in recovery before for substance abuse. There were some issues that I had to deal with that were also related to addiction. And so I’ve really used my recovery background to kind of start examining this and changing who I was.”

source: people.com