Ashley Judd calls James Franco's sexual misconduct allegation response 'terrific'

Sara M Moniuszko | USA TODAY

James Franco's responses to his sexual misconduct allegations have not gone unnoticed by Ashley Judd.

In an interview clip with HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur Friday, the actress and vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement praised Franco for being accountable for his actions.

“I think that what James said is terrific,” Judd told the BBC journalist. “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, and we have to have restorative justice.”

Judd continued, adding the importance of men and women coming together.

"This is about men and women being all together and having a more equitable and just workplace, home life, social spaces. I mean, we know that when women are empowered in the workplace and are in decision-making positions that workplaces have better financial outcomes and there's less harassment when there is more diversity. And it takes that kind of individual accountability to collectively make the change on a large scale."

Franco addressed the allegations against him during an interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show Tuesday.

"I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I’ve done," Franco said. "The things I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice, because they didn’t have a voice for so long. So, I don’t want to shut them down in any way. It's, I think, a good thing, and I support it."

The following day, the Los Angeles Times published a bombshell report in which five women accused him of sexually exploitative behavior.

The full interview with Judd airs on BBC World News on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET.