James Franco On Seth Rogen Saying They'll No Longer Work Together

Getty Image

James Franco was accused of sexual misconduct back in 2018.
As a result, his longtime friend and collaborator Seth Rogen says he has no plans of working with him in the future.
After years of silence, Franco has responded to the allegations and Rogen’s comments.

Earlier this year, we brought you the story of Seth Rogen saying that he has no plans to work with longtime collaborator and James Franco due to the allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.

“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,” Rogen told The Sunday Times back in May.

“I do look back at a joke I made on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2014 and I very much regret making that joke. “It was a terrible joke, honestly. And I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.”

Franco, now 43-years-old, was accused of sexual misconduct by five women back in 2018 and has been largely laying low ever since, as the former A-lister has starred in just one film, 2019’s little-seen Zeroville (which he directed) back in 2019. In addition to not starring in any movies, Franco took a step back from the spotlight in general, as we’ve rarely seen or heard from him in recent years.

After nearly four years of silence, Franco appeared on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Podcast this week to discuss the allegations, which stemmed from his time teaching a graduate-level film course at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. While Franco, who says he’s been battling sex addiction, admitted to sleeping with his students, he also claimed that it wasn’t part of any “master plan”:

“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.”

Franco also touched on Rogen’s comments about not planning to work with him anymore. The pair famously starred in Freaks and Geeks, Pineapple Express, This Is The End, The Interview, Sausage Party, and The Disaster Artist together.

“I just want to say, I absolutely love Seth Rogen. I love Seth Rogen. I worked with him for 20 years and we didn’t have one fight. For 20 years, not one fight,” Franco said.

“He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator. We just gelled… What he said is true. We aren’t working together right now and we don’t have any plans to work together. Of course, it was hurtful in context, but I get it, you know, he had to answer for me because I was silent.”

You can see clips of Franco’s interview below.