James Franco Opens Up About End of Friendship With Seth Rogen: 'I Guess It's Over'

10/25/2024 12:52 PM

Franco also detailed his fall from grace following the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him when he was an acting teacher, telling Variety, "Being told you're bad is painful. But ultimately, that's kind of what I needed to just stop going the way I was going."

James Franco is making some rare comments about his friendship with Seth Rogen.

In a new interview with Variety, the 46-year-old actor spoke about the strain his sexual misconduct lawsuit had on his friendship with his Pineapple Express co-star, and why he's "grateful" for his fall from grace.

"No. I haven't talked to Seth. I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess it's over," Franco said when asked for that status of his relationship with Rogen. "And not for lack of trying. I've told him how much he's meant to me."

The pair's longtime working relationship and friendship largely fell apart following the 2018 allegations leveled against Franco, in which five women accused Franco of inappropriate and sexually exploitative behavior while four of them were students at his acting school Studio 4, which was soon closed.

At the time of the allegations, Rogen told Vulture that he would continue to work with Franco, but he walked back those claims in a 2021 interview with The Sunday Times.

"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," Rogen said.

Franco was altogether ousted from Hollywood, and failed to score a nomination for the Oscars that year despite being a big contender with his film, The Disaster Artist.

"What I've really found is…I don't want it to sound like platitudes, but honestly, this is my experience. Sometimes life delivers things to you, and the delivery system is so painful. It really hurts," Franco said of the low blow. "Yeah, I felt really proud of that performance in The Disaster Artist. And OK, I wasn't nominated. Yeah, that hurt. But ultimately, from the big picture that I'm talking about, maybe it's for the best. Who am I to say?"

He added, "When I was functioning in that workaholic mode, a lot of it was just my young self's version of what a good life was. And I got pulled out of that."

Franco pulled out of the public eye amid the allegations and retreated from Hollywood, though he did later admit to having sex with his students during his time as an acting school teacher, leading to lawsuits and a $2 million sexual misconduct settlement in 2021.

Despite it all, Franco said he's happy for the lesson he learned as a result, telling Variety that getting "cancelled" is just what he need to stop him from continuing on the path he was on at the time.

"Being told you're bad is painful. But ultimately, that's kind of what I needed to just stop going the way I was going," Franco said. "So now, after having the pause and, I think, changing priorities, I guess what I seek to fulfill me in life [is different]. Ultimately, I think I'm kind of grateful because it did afford me a chance to just do whatever private work and really change what I need to change."

"So now that I am working, I can just be there for the project," he continued. "It's not about me trying to fill some hole with work, it's just about, 'Wow, I have a really great life. I'm very grateful, and I hope to serve whatever project I do.'"

Franco has since pivoted to working on European productions following the lawsuit; his latest, Hey Joe, just had a showing at the Rome Film Festival.

"I'm so grateful to be working. I did go through a lawsuit, and during that lawsuit I wasn't working. But then COVID hit so everybody wasn't working. So, I don't know, it was all…I mean, we were all kind of in it. So it was sort of like, 'I don't know what I am.' But I did certainly use the time to, I hope, good purpose," Franco explained. "And whatever had been going on with me before, I had to change my whole way of life."

"So I am proud of the kind of work I did during that time. And yeah, I wasn't working in movies, but I certainly was doing a lot of work to change who I was," he added.