Seth Rogen, James Franco. Getty Images (2)
Seth Rogen reacted to James Franco publicly saying their friendship was over after 20 years.
“Honestly, I absorb so little media that it really wasn’t on my radar,” Rogen, 42, said of Franco’s candidness about their relationship status in an interview with Esquire published on Wednesday, February 12.
Rogen did not share any additional details. The outlet noted, “That is all he wants to say about that.”
Last year, Franco, 46, made headlines when he shared that his friendship with Rogen was not what it once was.
“I haven’t talked to Seth,” Franco told Variety in October 2024. “I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess it’s over. And not for lack of trying. I’ve told him how much he’s meant to me.”
Rogen and Franco met while starring on the 1999 teen dramedy Freaks and Geeks. After working together on the cult classic series, the pair went on to appear on the big screen together in numerous movies, including Pineapple Express, This Is the End, The Disaster Artist and The Interview.
However, Franco and Rogen’s friendship hit a snag in 2018 when the 127 Hours star was accused of sexual misconduct. Five women, four of whom were Franco’s acting students, claimed that the actor allegedly participated in sexually inappropriate behavior. Two of those former students filed a sexual misconduct lawsuit in 2019 which Franco settled in 2021.
While Franco initially denied the allegations at first, he later admitted he slept with students but believed the interactions were consensual.
“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,” Franco said in a December 2021 interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “But … 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 … I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn’t have been.”
After Franco’s legal drama ended, Rogen shared that he didn’t have any plans to work with Franco in the near future.
“The truth is that I have not and I do not plan to [work with Franco] right now,” Rogen told The Sunday Times in May 2021.
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When asked if Rogen’s remarks still rang true seven months later, Franco confirmed that the pair’s working partnership was over.
“We aren’t working together right now and we don’t have any plans to work together,” Franco said during a December 2012 appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “Of course, it was hurtful, in context, but I get it. He had to answer for me ’cause I was silent. He had to answer for me, and I don’t want that.”
Despite being hurt by Rogen’s stance, Franco confessed he still had a lot of “love” for his former friend.
“I love Seth Rogen. I worked with him for 20 years,” he continued. “We didn’t have one fight for 20 years. Not one fight. He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator. We just gelled.”
