Back in 1999, a 20-year-old Busy Phillips and a 21-year-old James Franco starred alongside one another in the high school sitcom Freaks and Geeks. Despite only running for one season, the show has gone on to accrue cult status, in part due to the long list of now-notable names who worked on it. It was created by Paul Feig, today best known for his work on Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters and A Simple Favour, executive-produced by Judd Apatow (Girls, Knocked Up, Love) and co-starred a young Seth Rogen and Jason Segel.

But according to Phillips, life on the set of Freaks and Geeks wasn’t always enjoyable. In an extract from her forthcoming memoir This Will Only Hurt a Little, obtained by Yahoo Entertainment, Phillips describes Franco as a “f***ing bully” and claims that he physically assaulted her while they were filming a scene.

Phillips says that during filming, she was instructed to gently hit Franco in the chest while delivering a line. (Their respective characters, Kim Kelly and Daniel Desario, were in a tempestuous on-off relationship throughout the series.)

Although Phillips’ light shove was part of the scene, it apparently enraged Franco, who allegedly broke out of character and “threw [her] to the ground”. 

“He grabbed both my arms and screamed in my face, ‘DON’T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!’” Phillips writes. “And he threw me to the ground. Flat on my back. Wind knocked out of me.”

Members of the wider Freaks and Geeks cast and crew were horrified, Phillips says, and her co-star Linda Cardellini told her to call her manager about what Franco had done.

The next day, Franco reportedly apologised for his actions after being ordered to do so by Freaks and Geeks’ directors and producers, although Phillips says he was never actually punished for his alleged behaviour.

Phillips recently spoke out about another assault from her past, this time sexual rather than physical. Amid the allegations of sexual assault made against the now-US Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Phillips wrote on Instagram that she had been raped as a young teenager.

“This is me at 14. The age I was raped. It’s taken me 25 years to say those words,” she wrote in the caption accompanying an old photo.

“I wrote about it in my book. I finally told my parents and sister about it 4 months ago. Today is the day we are silent no more. All of us.

“I’m scared to post this,” she continued. “I can’t imagine what Dr [Christine Blasey] Ford is feeling right now.”

For Franco’s part, this is not the first time that he has been accused of treating women poorly in the last year or so. Five women came forward back in January to accuse the actor of sexual misconduct, including allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour on film sets. 

The women said they had been motivated to speak out after Franco wore a Time’s Up pin to the Golden Globes.

Franco described the women’s allegations were “not accurate”, but said he would not try and “shut them down in any way” out of respect for the #MeToo movement.

“I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long,” he said, adding: “If I’ve done something wrong, I will fix it.”

Images: Getty Images