Seth Rogen said in a new cover story for Esquire magazine that he did not pay attention to the online buzz that ignited last fall after his former friend and collaborator James Franco told Variety their friendship is definitively over. Rogen told The Sunday Times in 2021 that he did not plan to work with Franco again after sexual misconduct allegations made against the latter.
“No. I haven’t talked to Seth. I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess it’s over,” Franco told Variety last year. “And not for lack of trying. I’ve told him how much he’s meant to me.”
When asked now by Esquire how it felt “to have something so personal become so public,” Rogen did not want to discuss the topic outside of saying: “Honestly, I absorb so little media that it really wasn’t on my radar.” Esquire noted: “That is all he wants to say about that.”
Rogen and Franco got their starts together as cast members on NBC’s short-lived cult classic “Freaks and Geeks.” They went on to star opposite one another in classic comedies such as “Pineapple Express” and “This Is the End.” Rogen produced and starred in Franco’s 2017 directorial effort “The Disaster Artist,” which ended up being their final project together.
Franco was accused of sexual misconduct in 2018 by several students at his former acting school, who claimed the actor had intimidated them into sexual situations. The allegations — which Franco denied — resulted in a lawsuit that was then settled in February 2021. While Rogen originally said he would continue working with Franco amid the allegations, he changed course in 2021 during his Sunday Times interview.
“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,” Rogen said at the time, adding that the allegations against Franco “changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic.”
In response to the Times’ comment that the situation “must have been painful,” Rogen said: “Yeah. But not as painful and difficult as it is for a lot of other people involved. I have no pity for myself in this situation.”
Head over to Esquire’s website to read Rogen’s latest cover story in its entirety.
