James Franco’s glittering career first showed signs of faltering in 2014, when a 17-year-old girl shared messages the then-35-year-old sent her on Instagram, trying to coerce her into showing up at his hotel despite knowing her age. At the time, Franco brushed off his behavior, saying he “used bad judgment.” But in 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, multiple women came forward to accuse Franco of sexual misconduct at his former acting school, Studio 4, which eventually led to a class-action lawsuit and a multi-million-dollar legal settlement in 2021. Though Franco admitted to having sex with his students and previously undergoing treatment for sex addiction, he did not address any allegations of sexual exploitation or misconduct. Since then, the now 48-year-old has mostly remained out of the spotlight.
Now, just like other previously canceled men who are making comebacks — including Louis C.K., Jonathan Majors and Kevin Spacey, among others — Franco has re-emerged in the Shortical microdrama “Love, Lies & Frank.” In the series, he plays Jimmy Frank, a dejected ad agency CEO who is millions of dollars in debt to a pack of unsavory werewolves donning terrible prosthetics who are threatening the company Jimmy’s father built from the ground up. Across 46 episodes, ranging from 40 seconds to two minutes, Franco appears alongside established vertical actors Eric Guilmette and Neela Jolen. Guilmette, playing Jimmy’s stepbrother Cameron Frank, and Jolen, who stars as Daniella Hansen, a junior creative at the company determined to rise in the ranks, embrace their roles with gusto despite a predictable plot and having to act through werewolf fangs.
