Busy Philipps Says 'Bully' James Franco Pushed Her to the Ground While Filming Freaks and Geeks
Busy Philipps doesn’t have the fondest memories of working with James Franco.
In her forthcoming memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little, the actress, 39, details an incident she claims occurred on a particularly tense day on the set of Freaks and Geeks, which aired on NBC from 1999-2000. The excerpt was first reported on by RadarOnline.
Philipps claims in the book that Franco, whom she describes as a “f— bully,” didn’t treat her with the same level of respect that he reserved for Linda Cardellini and all of his male costars.
Illustrating one example where the actor was especially difficult to work with, she recalled their experience shooting the “We’ve Got Spirit” episode.
After shooting one scene where Philipps said she called out Franco, 40, for stepping on one her lines, the pair — who played a couple — had to shoot a scene where Philipps was supposed to hit Franco in the chest.
However, instead of responding with a line of dialogue, Philipps claimed that instead her costar “grabbed both my arms and screamed in my face, ‘DON’T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!’ “
She wrote that he proceeded to throw her to the ground, knocking the wind out of her.
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The next day, Philipps said Franco apologized to her after executive producer Judd Apatow made him watch a video of what happened.
She said Franco went on to apologize, claiming that he had a negative reaction to watching his character being treated poorly. According to Philipps, that was the extent of Franco’s punishment for the incident.
Franco’s rep did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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Philipps previously discuss the incident during a 2016 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, describing it as “really brutal.”
“James Franco and I really didn’t get along when we were on Freaks and Geeks,” she said. “We were 19, and we really, really disliked each other — it’s well-documented. He shoved me to the ground once. It was really brutal.”
However, the actress said that the pair had put the past behind them.
“We’ve since made amends,” she said. “We’re friends now and we really like each other now as adults, but as kids we did not get along.”
Franco was accused of sexual misconduct by five women both on and off movie sets in a Los Angeles Times article published in January. He has denied the allegations.
This Will Only Hurt a Little comes out Oct. 16.
