James Franco talks about the end of his friendship with Seth Rogen

The duo of Freaks and Geeks and It's the End no longer speak to each other, since the accusations of sexual harassment made by former students of Franco against them.

In early 2018, when he was acclaimed for The Disaster Artist, James Franco found himself at the heart of a scandal, accused by five women of having sexually blackmailed them while he was a theater teacher. “He made everyone believe that there were possible roles if we were willing to perform sexual acts,” thus denounced one of them in the New York Times.

Since then, we have seen Franco again in the last season of The Deuceand in some projects that he himself carried out (Zeroville, Pretenders…). On the other hand, it was boycotted in Hollywood. Particularly by his closest friends, Seth Rogen having quickly announced that he no longer wanted to work with him.

At the time, a complaint was filed, and an out-of-court settlement was reached in February 2021. James Franco paid $2.2 million to settle the case. In December of that year, the actor appeared on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle podcast to talk about his case and admit publicly that he had slept with some of her students:

“In 2018 there were these complaints about me. I just thought I would shut up and take a break. It didn't seem like a good time to say anything. There were people who were angry and I needed to listen. I have been in recovery for drug addiction. There were issues I faced that were also related to addiction. And so I really worked on that to start changing who I was.”

Three years later, James Franco returned to cinema, in Europe at least, to star in the third opus of Long Winch. A film which currently has no release date in the United States. There it's through drama Hey Joeby Claudio Giovannesi (Pirhannas), that he should make his comeback. He has just presented it at the Rome festival, and Variety took the opportunity to ask him a few questions.

James Franco, Emma Watson and Seth Rogen in This is the End, in 2013.

“Hearing you say that you're a bad person is hard, confides the 46-year-old actor to the American magazine, but I think that's what I needed to stop behaving the way I was. (…) Today, I feel so lucky to have work. I had this trial, and for the duration of it, I couldn't film. Then there was COVID and then it affected everyone, it was as if we were all in the same basket. But I no longer knew who I was. I've tried to use this time to hopefully become a better person. I had to change my entire way of living, and I'm proud that I did all that work. So no, for a while, I no longer made films, but I worked a lot to develop the person I was.

Before the last eight years, you could say that I had a good career. But it was complicated for me to appreciate all that. All I did was work, I was a workhaolic. Even if I had the opportunity to have a good time, if I released a popular film, for example or if I was nominated for an award or something, I couldn't take advantage of it. I always had this weird idea in me, I told myself that I needed more.”

James Franco's confessional interview ends with this observation: no, he is no longer friends with Seth Rogen. Following the accusations of sexual harassment, his long-time accomplice cut ties with him. They had worked together since their youth, on the series Freaks and Geeksthen on lots of comedies: Délire Express, It's the end, Sausage Party, The Interview that kills… But when five women reported similar abuses about him, he distanced himself from James Franco.

“No, we don't talk to Seth anymore, confirms his former friend and gaming partner. I love him, we spent 20 great years together, but I think it's all over. And it's not for lack of trying. I told him how much he meant to me.”

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