Actress and writer Charlyne Yi publicly criticized James Franco earlier in the week, and on Saturday she posted on Instagram to double down on her description of the actor and director as “a sexual predator.” Yi, who appeared in The Disaster Artist in 2017 along with Franco and Seth Rogen, claimed she tried to quit the film because of Franco.
Yi, who appeared in the film about Tommy Wiseau and the making of The Room, has also appeared in films like This Is 40, Knocked Up and has done a long list of voice acting roles. And now she’s making public her attempt to quit the Golden Globe-winning film and calling out people she feel enable Franco in Hollywood.
As the New York Daily News laid out, Yi claimed she was bribed in order to stay quiet about what she described as new allegations of abuse against Franco she learned about while filming.
On Thursday, Yi said that when she tried “to break legal contract” and quit the movie “because James Franco is a sexual predator,” producers tried to “bribe” her with a better role.
That was exactly the opposite of what she wanted, she told them, adding that she “didn’t feel safe working with a f–ng sexual predator.”
Producers tried to minimize the situation, telling her that “Franco being a predator was so last [year] and that he changed… when I literally heard of him abusing new women that week.”
You can read her first post in full below.
On Saturday, Yi addressed her claims again on Instagram, critiquing reporters who covered allegations of sexual abuse against Franco from several women in 2018, reports that surfaced in the wake of his Golden Globe win for The Disaster Artist.
“Denying/gaslighting is a tactic that abusers and enablers use that is psychological violence, & has serious affects: the survivor loses sense of reality/intuition to protect self from targeted again, PTSD, suicidal thoughts/suicide, etc,” Yi wrote. She also criticized Seth Rogen for willfully “enabling Franco preying on children”
Allegations against Franco are nothing new: Busy Philipps famously alleged Franco assaulted her on the set of Freaks and Geeks, though in her memoir she claimed that the two are now friends. Yi has posted several times in recent days about abuse, gaslighting and what people can do to support victims of sexual misconduct. Neither Franco nor Rogen have addressed Yi’s comments since they were shared on social media, but they shined new light on a very troubling series of allegations in recent days.