James Franco is not shying away from this weekend’s SAG Awards.
A rep for Franco tells CNN that he will attend the awards on Sunday despite the recent accusations of sexual misconduct made against him.
Franco, who recently won a Golden Globe for his role in “The Disaster Artist” (which he also directed), is nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
There was speculation as to whether Franco would attend after he skipped last week’s Critics’ Choice Awards, where he won the award for best actor in a comedy.
Franco’s decision to attend the awards this weekend comes after he was accused of sexual misconduct by several women on social media on the night of the Golden Globes, earlier this month. That night saw a number of celebrities appearing in solidarity with the recently launched anti-sexual harassment and assault initiative, “Time’s Up.” Franco appeared at the award show wearing a “Time’s Up” pin on his jacket lapel – a decision that reportedly caused at least one of his accusers to come forward.
The actor went on to address the allegations on both “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”
“I have my own side of this story, but I believe in these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much,” he told Meyers.
Related: James Franco wins but skips Critics’ Choice Awards
Hours after his appearance on “Late Night,” the Los Angeles Times published a story in which five women who had worked with Franco, or who studied acting at a school founded by the actor, said they experienced inappropriate and sometimes sexually exploitative behavior by him. CNN has reached out to the women but have not confirmed their accounts.
“It has been a really tough time, but James has appreciated the support from his friends and others both in and out of the industry,” a source close to Franco tells CNN.
Actress Ashley Judd, who has been at forefront of the #MeToo movement and was one of the first women in Hollywood in recent months to come forward with her own accusations of sexual harassment in show business, praised the way Franco has handled this controversy.
“I think that what James said is terrific,” Judd told the BBC. “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. I mean we’ve all operated with a certain amount of tone-deafness, and I like the culpability.”