Seth Rogen has confirmed he’s no longer friends with James Franco, revealing he hasn’t spoken to the actor in a “long time” and doesn’t plan to work with him again.
The pair first met while starring in 1999 teen series Freaks and Geeks and went on to work together on a string of hit movies, including Pineapple Express (2008), The Interview (2014) and The Disaster Artist (2017).
When Franco was accused of sexual misconduct in January 2018, Rogen publicly distanced himself from the actor after originally supporting him – something Franco described as “hurtful”.
Now, Rogen has opened up about his feelings on the subject during an interview with The New York Times, stating: “I honestly think the nuance of it is too personal for me to get into right now. It is a very personal thing.
“There’s the public-facing side of it, which I’ve spoken about, and I have the same stance publicly that I’ve had, and I think the proof is in the pudding – I have not worked with him in years.”
However, he said that “the personal side of it is just so nuanced, and it involves people that I don’t know if I should be dragging into this”, adding: “I don’t know what I would benefit from getting deeply into it.”
He maintained that “nothing has changed since the last time I talked about all this, and I haven’t worked with him in a really long time and I have no plans to”.
The Independent has contacted Franco for comment.
In 2018, five women – including four of Franco’s former pupils at the acting school he co-founded in 2014 – came forward with allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour by the 46-year-old. At the time, Franco said the allegations were “not accurate” but that he did not want to “shut down” people who “did not have a voice.”
Two of his accusers, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal – both of whom were taught by Franco at the Playhouse West Studio 4 school – went on to pursue legal action in 2019.
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In June 2021, it was reported that Franco had agreed to pay $2.23m (£1.67m) to settle the suit, which alleged that he and his business partners had “engaged in widespread inappropriate and sexually charged behaviour towards female students by sexualising their power as a teacher and an employer by dangling the opportunity for roles in their projects”.
As part of the settlement, the parties released a statement reading: “While Defendants continue to deny the allegations in the Complaint, they acknowledge that Plaintiffs have raised important issues; and all parties strongly believe that now is a critical time to focus on addressing the mistreatment of women in Hollywood.
“All agree on the need to make sure that no one in the entertainment industry – regardless of race, religion, disability, ethnicity, background, gender or sexual orientation – faces discrimination, harassment or prejudice of any kind.”
In an interview with The Times in 2021, Rogen said of the multiple allegations against Franco: “What I can say is that I despise abuse and harassment and I would never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that.
“The truth is that I have not and I do not plan to [work with Franco] right now.”
Franco addressed his friendship with Rogen in an interview with SiriusXM’s Jess Cagle Show, stating: “I want to apologise to Seth. He did nothing wrong and was forced to speak for me.”
During this interview, he also spoke publicly on the allegations for the first time, claiming he was “completely blind to power dynamics” while admitting to having sex with his acting students.
“Look, I’ll admit, I did sleep with students. I didn’t sleep with anybody in that particular class, but over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students, and that was wrong.
“But, like I said, it’s not why I started the school and I wasn’t the person that selected the people to be in the class. So it wasn’t a ‘master plan’ on my part. But yes, there were certain instances where, you know what, I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn’t have been.”
