Maggie Gyllenhaal: Cancelling The Deuce would have been misguided

1 March 2019

Maggie Gyllenhaal thinks it would have been "misguided" to cancel 'The Deuce' after James Franco was accused of sexual misconduct.

Maggie Gyllenhaal

The 40-year-old actor was accused of inappropriate behaviour towards five women on and off movie sets in an article published last January, prompting speculation the porn drama would be cancelled entirely.

While his co-star and producer on the HBO show believes "there have to be consequences for disrespecting women sexually, or at all", she thinks pulling the plug would have sent the wrong message.

She told The Guardian newspaper: "The show is about misogyny and inequality in the entertainment business.

"And I feel that there are all of these fascinating women telling these stories that illuminate exactly what is on the table in terms of feminism at the moment. That would have felt misguided and confused to me."

Maggie, who has been a vocal supporter of the Time's Up movement, admitted her thinking on James' role in the show "changes all the time".

When it comes to her own work, the 'Kindergarten Teacher' admitted she doesn't want to play cinema's "fantasy version of the powerful woman" as she'd rather depict an "actual woman" with "some aspects that are powerful, and some that are confused, broken and vulnerable."

She admitted: "I want all of it!"

Maggie previously admitted she had questioned every woman working on 'The Deuce' about James' conduct towards them.

Asked if she had ignored the allegations or confronted the star and what to do in such a situation, she said: "I would've felt similarly as an actor, but I felt it was my responsibility to do the opposite of ignore it.

"You know, we at the time that the accusations against James came out in the LA Times we read them all, we took them very seriously.

"We spoke to every woman on the crew and in the cast to find out if they felt respected and what their experience of working with James was and everyone said that they had been totally respected by him."

The actor has denied the allegations against him.