During a new interview with Variety, disgraced actor James Franco gave an update on his fractured relationship with frequent former co-star Seth Rogen.
Rogen and Franco got their start together in the TV show Freaks and Geeks and went on to star together in well-remembered comedies like Pineapple Express (2008), Your Highness (2011), This Is the End (2013), The Interview (2014), and The Disaster Artist (2017). Franco was one of the industry’s hottest stars until a 2019 lawsuit, which has since been settled, accused the actor of sleeping with students from his acting class.
Franco hasn’t starred in a major project since 2019, though he’s trying to work his way back into the industry’s good graces with a role in the French action film The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure. But one person who presumably won’t be forgiving Franco anytime soon is Rogen.
When asked by the outlet if he’d spoken with Rogen recently, Franco responded, “No. I haven’t talked to Seth.” Franco continued: “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.”
Franco admitted to the things he was accused of in a controversial 2021 interview on The Jess Cagle Podcast, admitting it was “wrong” but stipulating that “it wasn’t a master plan on my part.”
The actor told Variety that while his fall from grace, seemingly at the height of his career, was undoubtedly painful, it was also necessary. “Being told you’re bad is painful,” he said. “But ultimately, that’s kind of what I needed to just stop going the way I was going.”