Clearing the air. Busy Philipps clarified her recent comments about the time James Franco allegedly assaulted her on the set of their short-lived NBC sitcom Freaks and Geeks.
“The Franco story is used to illustrate a larger point about the way women are treated in this business in life. There are no ‘allegations’ and no ‘accusations,’” the Dawson’s Creek alum, 39, wrote on Instagram on Tuesday, October 9. “It’s a story that I have been telling for years. James apologized. I accepted. And I still get to tell it because it f–king happened to me.”
Philipps has opened up about the alleged incident in recent interviews and in her upcoming memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little. She claimed Franco, 40, shoved her to the ground after grabbing her arms and screaming in her face. In a profile published by The Hollywood Reporter earlier on Tuesday, she insisted that the encounter “wasn’t even outrageous.”
The actress wrote on Instagram that she does not want the story to be fans’ sole takeaway from her memoir. “My book is 308 pages, not one paragraph,” she noted.
The Deuce star has not addressed the alleged incident. Five women previously accused him of sexual misconduct in a report published by the Los Angeles Times in January. He denied those allegations at the time before saying on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that he supports “people coming out and being able to have a voice.”
Philipps revealed on Instagram on September 27 that she was raped at the age of 14. She decided to come forward shortly after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified that newly minted Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted Ford in 1982, which he denied.
This Will Only Hurt a Little hits bookstores on Tuesday, October 16.
