James Franco to return to the screen in new role following sexual misconduct allegations

James Franco has confirmed a new major acting role, having stepped away from the big screen for four years after sexual misconduct allegations were made against him.

Actors Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal then filed a lawsuit in 2019 alleging that Franco had engaged in 'sexually-charged behaviour towards female students' at his now-defunct acting school.

Franco had said the initial allegations made against him in 2018 were ‘not accurate’, but last year it was reported he had agreed to pay $2.23m (£1.67m) to settle the lawsuit. 

Maestro is set to portray Natalia 'Naty' Revuelta, the Cuban socialite who Castro had a passionate affair with, while Ana Villafañe has landed the role as their daughter Alina Fernández.

Speaking about the decision to cast Franco, producer John Martinez O’Felan told the outlet: "Finding and convincing James Franco to play Castro, was a fun and challenging process and has been the collaborative work of the universe."

He said that the 'director’s original order was to find an actor who holds a close physical resemblance to the real Castro', while also looking for someone who 'Alina Fernandez would strongly endorse'.

O’Felan continued: "To get there on such a tough look to cast, we used Fidel Castro’s ancient Galician heraldry as our focal compass, and then combed through the entire ranks of actors with Latin roots in Hollywood to find someone who has a similar facial structure.

"In executing a close search into our hopefuls through the eye of Spanish and Portuguese genealogy which the Galicians held, we found that James, by far, had the closest facial likeness of our industry’s leading actors."

Last December, Franco gave his first in-depth interview since the allegations were made against him, where he claimed he'd been battling sex addiction for 20 years.

"Over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students, and that was wrong," he said. "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."