In his first in-depth interview in nearly four years, James Franco is addressing the sexual misconduct allegations brought against him in 2018.

The actor sat down with Sirius XM’s Jess Cagle and opened up about why he hasn’t spoken out sooner.

“At that moment I just thought I’m gonna be quiet,” he says. “I’m gonna pause. Did not seem like the right time to say anything. There were people that were upset with me and I needed to listen.”

Franco says over the past four years he went to work on himself. He says that after getting sober from alcohol at age 17, he realized his addiction had turned to sex.

The actor admits to cheating on everyone he had been with until his current girlfriend, Isabel Pakzad, and says he slept with students at his former acting school, Playhouse West Studio 4, though stresses he didn’t start the school for that purpose.

“I didn’t want to hurt people,” he says. “…And the behavior spun out to a point where it was like I was hurting everybody.”

Over the summer, Franco reached a settlement with two of his former acting students who filed a sexual misconduct lawsuit against him in 2019.

Franco’s full interview with Jess Cagle airs Thursday.