Ashley Judd Praises James Franco For His ‘Terrific’ Response To Allegations

Ashley
Judd thinks James Franco’s recent response to sexual misconduct allegations is
“terrific.”
 
Ashley
Judd opened up in a new interview with HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur, which will
air  Sunday, Jan. 14 at 11:30 p.m. ET on BBC World News.
 
“I
think that what James said is terrific,” Judd said in part to Sackur.
“And I think that we’ve all behaved, at a certain level, unconsciously,
and done things that were insensitive, inappropriate, without necessarily
understanding that they were.” She continued, “I like the
culpability, and we have to have restorative justice.”

WATCH: Salma Hayek & Ashley Judd Talk Raising ‘A Beacon Of Hope’ With Time’s Up Movement

Two women tweeted accusations following James Franco’s Best Actor win at the Golden Globes last week, where he also wore a Time’s Up pin in support of the movement combating sexual misconduct in the workplace.
 
“The Disaster Artist” star disputed the claims on Tuesday’s episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” but explained why he supports alleged victims’ right to speak up.

WATCH: James Franco Responds To Sexual Harassment Allegations On ‘Late Show’

“The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice,” he told Colbert.
Franco also said he had “no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy” or “why she was upset,” in response to vague accusations tweeted against Franco during the 2018 Golden Globes. Sheedy has since deleted the tweets.
 
According to People, Franco is “in a really bad place” following a Los Angeles Times exposé published on Thursday, which detailed sexual misconduct allegations from five women – four of whom are Franco’s former students.
 
“His close friends are trying to be there for him but it’s been hard – he’s only talking to a select group of people. For now, he’s just hiding out,” a source told the mag, adding that Franco has also changed his phone number amid the fallout. Franco’s attorney Michael Plonsker denied the allegations.
 
In the “HARDtalk” interview, Judd said she thinks it’s “fantastic” to have a conversation about defining appropriate behavior.

READ: James Franco A No-Show At 2018 Critics’ Choice Awards Following Sexual Misconduct Allegations

 “I think it’s fantastic to have the conversation, and starting to articulate and identify and have a gradient of behaviors—and understand that there is a spectrum of behavior—that’s so important,” she said. “Unless we talk about this, and tease each part of it out, we can’t understand what is unacceptable and what is. And we also need the lexicon for describing the behavior.”

—Keith Freshwater