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Seth Rogen makes rare comment on where he stands with James Franco after ending their friendship
Kim N.
Seth Rogen has made a rare comment about his former friendship with James Franco, years after he cut him off.
Rogen, 44, and Franco, 48, had been friends for years after they met on the set of the 1999 NBC series Freaks and Geeks, going on to work together in several movies over the next two decades, including Pineapple Express, The Disaster Artist, and This Is The End.
However, their longstanding friendship came to an end in 2018 after Rogen cut Franco off in the wake of the latter's allegations of sexual misconduct.
Franco had been accused of inappropriate behavior by former students at his Studio 4 film school, which closed in 2017.
Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal had accused the actor and his partners of "sexualizing their power as a teacher and an employer by dangling the opportunity for roles in their projects," with the suit alleging Franco "was looking to create a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation."
The lawsuit was settled in 2021, and Franco addressed the allegations during an interview on SiriusXM, telling host Jess Cagle, per USA Today: "I'll admit I did sleep with students.
"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."
When challenged about the power imbalance between him and the students he had relations with, Franco responded: "I suppose at the time, my thinking was if it's consensual, OK.
"Of course, I knew talking to other people – other teachers or whatever – it's probably not a cool thing. At the time I was not clearheaded, as I've said."
Franco addressed his fallout with Rogen in 2024, telling Variety: "I haven't talked to Seth. 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 has largely remained quiet about the end of the friendship, telling Esquire in 2025 that he hadn't seen those comments from Franco, claiming: "Honestly, I absorb so little media that it really wasn’t on my radar."
However, in a new interview released on June 13, 2026, Rogen addressed the end of their friendship in more depth, admitting it was "nuanced".
Speaking the New York Times The Interview podcast, Rogen revealed: "I haven't worked with him in a really long time and I have no plans to," adding that he also hasn't "talked to him in a long time."
When he was asked about Franco, Rogen took several seconds to consider how much he wanted "to personally share about this," adding: "The nuance of it is too personal for me to get into right now."
He explained: "It is a very personal thing. There's the public-facing side of it, which I've spoken about, and I have the same stance publicly that I've had, and I think the proof is in the pudding more than anything. I have not worked with him in years.
"But the personal side of it is just so nuanced, and it involves people that I don't know if I should be dragging into this."