Actress Charlyne Yi calls James Franco a ‘sexual predator’

Charlyne Yi says she tried to quit The Disaster Artist. (Photo: Presley Ann/Getty Images)

Charlyne Yi, the actress who appeared alongside Seth Rogen in Knocked Up, is calling him out for “enabling” his friend and frequent co-star James Franco.

Since 2018, multiple women have accused Franco of having acted inappropriately with them. Five of them told the Los Angeles Times in January of that year that Franco had been what the newspaper termed “sexually exploitative” with them, while they were students at his acting school. Two recalled him becoming angry when women wouldn’t go topless, and a third said that, during a nude orgy scene, he “removed protective plastic guards covering other actress’ vaginas while simulating oral sex on them.” Two of the women filed lawsuits against the actor. Franco called the allegations “false and inflammatory,” and the claims were settled in February.

Rogen and Franco have been famously close friends since they co-starred in the TV show Freaks and Geeks, which debuted in 1999. They went on to make many movies together, including Pineapple Express in 2008 and, in 2017, the film The Disaster Artist.

Yi, who also appeared in The Disaster Artist, said Thursday that she had tried to break her contract and leave that film because she “didn’t feel safe working with a f****** sexual predator.” She said that people attempted to “bribe me with a bigger acting role.”

She blamed people for minimizing Franco’s actions. 

“Enablers,” she said, “are just as toxic and are abusers too.”

Neither Franco nor Rogen, who were both producers on that film, responded to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.

Yi noted in the caption that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but “it really should be something men educate themselves about their whole life and learn how to be there & protect women, nonbinary, trans, etc—who are targeted.”

She also said Wednesday that one of Rogen’s other friends, who organizes events raising awareness about domestic abuse, asked her to share her “abuse story,” because men have to hold men accountable for their actions. Yi said he ghosted her after she asked him why he wasn’t holding Rogen accountable.

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“Waiting for men (esp white men) to show up and do the work,” Yi wrote.

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