All of the women to come forward on Thursday were students at Franco's Studio 4 acting school, which he opened in New York and Los Angeles in 2014 and which "abruptly closed" last year. Hilary Dusome and Natalie Chmiel said that they were asked to participate in a "hostile" shoot in a strip club in which they were wearing lingerie and masks, and that when Franco asked who among the women actors would volunteer and none did, the actor left in a huff. "I felt like I was selected for something based on my hard work and my merit, and when I realized it was because I have nice [breasts], it was pretty clear that was not the case," Dusome said. "I don't think he started teaching with bad intentions, but he went down a bad path and damaged a lot of people in the process."
One of the purported perks of attending the school were opportunities to work with Franco's film company, which he said would source actors from the acting classes there. Another woman, Katie Ryan, a former Studio 4 student, recounted how these parts seemed to always be of a sexual nature, if they were even available—other students quoted in the piece said they never heard back about acting parts in Franco's projects. According to Ryan, Franco “would always make everybody think there were possible roles on the table if we were to perform sexual acts or take off our shirts," and that "for years, she received mass email requests from Franco to audition for roles playing 'a prostitute or a hooker.'" READ MORE
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