James Franco speaks about 2018 sexual misconduct allegations

"In 2018, there were some complaints about me and an article about me, and at that moment, I just thought, 'I'm gonna be quiet. I'm gonna pause.' Did not seem like the right time to say anything," Franco told Cagle. "There were people that were upset with me, and I needed to listen."

Franco said he has "just been doing a lot of work" to address his addictions and problematic behavioral patterns and shared that he had previously gotten sober from alcoholism at 17 years old.

"Once I couldn't use alcohol to sort of fill that hole, it was like, 'Oh, success, attention, this is great,'" Franco explained. "And so, in a weird way, I got addicted to validation, I guess, or success or whatever that is.

"Along the road of trying to get success and climb the top of that mountain, attention from women [and] success with women also became a huge source of validation for me," Franco continued. "The problem with that is, I'm sure you can guess, like any sort of drug or anything, there's never enough."

Franco recalled he had been given a book from his sister-in-law about sex addiction that made him realize he had an issue that he couldn't solve on his own. He revealed that he had had girlfriends, but he "cheated on everyone" before meeting girlfriend Isabel Pakzad.

Directly addressing those 2018 accusations, Franco admitted to wrongdoing but maintained any sexual relations with students were consensual (h/t People).

"Over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students, and that was wrong. But like I said, it's not why I started the school and I wasn't the person that selected the people to be in the class. So it wasn't a 'master plan' on my part. But yes, there were certain instances where, you know what, I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn't have been."

Franco had previously commented on allegations made against him while visiting The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Jan. 10, 2018—one day before The Los Angeles Times article:

Franco had worn a "Time's Up" pin at the Golden Globe Awards, which led to this graphic accusation on Twitter from Violet Paley. Franco told Colbert the tweet was "not accurate."

Later that January, Paley and Sarah Tither-Kaplan discussed their alleged experiences on Good Morning America (h/t People).

In February of this year, Franco reached a tentative settlement with two of his former students, Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal. He agreed to pay $2.2 million.