Actress Busy Philipps has been unafraid to speak her mind in recent years, particularly as she prepares to release her first memoir and launch a new late-night talk show later this month.
In This Will Only Hurt a Little, which will be published next week, Philipps alleges that James Franco, her costar on Freaks and Geeks, physically assaulted her in 1999 on the set of that short-lived but beloved NBC TV show.
According to Philipps, she was shooting a scene with Franco that required her to gently hit him on the chest as she delivered her line. The actress alleges that Franco immediately broke character after she made contact.
“He grabbed both my arms and screamed in my face, ‘DON’T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!’” Philipps wrote, according to Radar Online, which first reported on the excerpt. “And he threw me to the ground. Flat on my back. Wind knocked out of me.”
Though Franco reportedly apologised the next day, at the direction of producers, Philipps claimed that the actor was never reprimanded for his behaviour.
But that doesn’t mean that the pair haven’t discussed the incident since.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter published on Tuesday, Philipps said, “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,” the actress told THR, referring to why she hadn’t made more of a fuss about the incident. “And so I felt I needed to never complain, always show up on time and not be difficult. If someone else was being difficult, it was my job to be the easy one or figure out a way to soothe the situation.”
This is not the first time that Franco has faced accusations of misconduct within the industry.
In January, Los Angeles Times reported that five women, including acting students of Franco’s, accused him of behaviour they found to be inappropriate or sexually exploitative.
Representatives for Philipps and Franco did not immediately respond to request for comment on Tuesday morning.
