Amid sexual misconduct allegations, actor and filmmaker James Franco chose to skip the 2018 Critics' Choice Awards where he won the Best Actor honour for his role in 'The Disaster Artist'.
The Los Angeles Times published a report on January 11 in which five women went on record accusing Franco of sexually inappropriate and exploitative behaviour. Four of the accusers are Franco's former acting students.
"He's in a really bad place, so bad that he changed his phone number," a source close to the situation told People Magazine.
"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."
Allegations of sexual misconduct involving the 39-year-old emerged in force on Twitter on Sunday night during the Golden Globes, where Franco won best actor, musical or comedy for his role as Tommy Wiseau.
During the ceremony, one actress tweeted that he had forced her to perform oral sex on her and asked a 17-year-old friend back to his hotel; a former student of Franco's also tweeted that he had asked her to do a nude scene for 100 dollars a day, which she called "exploitative."
The actor addressed the allegations when he made an appearance on 'Late Night with Seth Meyers' on Wednesday.
"I was sent a couple of the tweets. So yeah, I did read them.
I haven't responded," he said.
"The ones I read were not accurate, but one of the things that I've learned is that this is a conversation that obviously needs to be had. There are people, women and others, who have not been a part of this conversation. I truly believe, and why I was wearing the pin, is that they need to be a part of this conversation. I support them.
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