Seth Rogen and James Franco in The Interview
Star comedy actor Seth Rogen says that he will not be working again with James Franco. This is because of all of the sexual assault claims made against Franco.
Rogen revealed his decision to make the professional break from longtime friend Franco in an interview with England’s The Sunday Times. He made the revelation when discussing his defense of Franco in a print interview which Rogen gave in 2018.
“I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James,” said Rogen, “and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.”
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When trying to describe the current state of his personal friendship with James Franco, Seth Rogen said, “I don’t know if I can define that right now during this interview. I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic.”
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Seth Rogen’s stoner comedies defined the Noughties — but their jokes about sex and women make for uncomfortable viewing. What does he think of them now? @DeccaJourno finds out. https://t.co/kL5YMEqb8t
— The Sunday Times (@thesundaytimes) May 9, 2021
The duo first worked together as co-stars on the television show “Freaks and Geeks” back in 2000. Since then they have worked together on movies like “Pineapple Express,” “This is the End” and “The Interview.”
So what has James Franco done? In 2014 the actor/writer/director was accused of sending sexually explicit messages to a then by a 17 year old girl over Instagram. The girl revealed the messages which she received form the then 35 year old Franco. The actor had tried to talk the girl into meeting with him in a New York hotel room. While he did nothing illegal as 17 was the legal age of consent at the time, Franco’s timing could not have been worse after all of the revelations which had just come out about people like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey.
Franco then compounded the problem by making a joke out of it. He tweeted, “I HOPE PARENTS KEEP THEIR TEENS AWAY FROM ME. Thank you.”
In 2018, the Oscar nominated actor was accused of sexual assault by five women. Two sued him. The lawsuit was filed in 2019 by former students of James Franco’s, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, over accusations that Franco had engaged in misconduct with students at his acting school called Studio 4. The school has since closed.
The women claimed that under the guise of teaching them how to be actors they were required to take part in explicit sex scenes on camera. They claimed that the scenes were unnecessary and felt to them more like orgies than an acting class. That suit was recently settled out of court.
Seth Rogen was also forced to own up to his own past comments in which he either defended James Franco or made light of the accusations. When hosting Saturday Night Live in 2014 Rogen joked about the 17 year old girl saying in his opening monologue, “I decided to prank James Franco. I posed as a girl on Instagram, told him I was way young. He seemed unfazed. I have a date to meet him at the Ace Hotel.”
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My co-stars, Sebastian and Lily, are a lot cooler than I am. #PamandTommy pic.twitter.com/r8YWh1eBuJ
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 7, 2021
Rogen now say that he despises, “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. However, 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.”
