Jose Angel Santana (Robert Miller)
Actor James Franco may have to shell out another arm and a leg following a lawsuit filed yesterday by his former NYU film instructor — who claims the “127 Hours’’ star defamed him because he got a “D’’ for playing hookey.
“Whoever was in Clint Eastwood’s chair at the Republican National Convention was more present than Mr. Franco was in my classes,” José Angel Santana told The Post, referring to the “Dirty Harry” actor’s “conversation’’ with an empty chair meant to represent President Obama
Franco is “a bully,’’ said the former full-time professor. “He uses the bully pulpit of his celebrity to punish anyone who doesn’t do his bidding.”
Santana is seeking unspecified monetary damages in the Manhattan Supreme Court civil action against Franco, who has played a rock climber who amputated his own arm to free himself from a crevasse.
The ex-instructor, who has already sued NYU, blasted Franco for making “disparaging and inaccurate public statements.”
“I didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of those falsehoods,” said Santana, who has been a teacher since 1979 and was earning $70,000 when he was fired in September 2011.
“I was outraged that someone with his attendance record at NYU had the audacity to make those statements.”
He insisted he was only doing his job while other star-struck professors “bent over backwards to create a Franco-friendly environment.”
“When the suit was filed against him, Mr. Franco initially took the high road and said nothing,” said Matthew Blit, Santana’s lawyer.
“Unfortunately, he could not help himself once his new movie [‘The Broken Tower’] was being released.”
Franco, who missed 12 of Santana’s 14 directing classes, had told reporters Santana was “awful,” adding, “I didn’t feel like I needed to waste my time with a bad teacher.”
“No teacher will ever be fired from NYU for giving a student a ‘D,’ ’’ Franco told several media outlets in April. “He wasn’t fired, he was asked not to come back after three years because they didn’t think he was a good teacher.”
“He is not going to be hired at another institution,” Franco charged in another interview.
Santana claims the actor had access to teaching records — but defamed him despite knowing the professor had “overwhelmingly positive student evaluations.”