Seth Rogen Says He Has No Plans to Work With James Franco After Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Seth Rogen says he has no plans to work with his longtime collaborator, James Franco, in the future. The two met as kids on the set of Freaks and Geeks (where Franco allegedly assaulted Busy Philipps, though he apologized and she accepted) and worked together on hit projects like the stoner comedy Pineapple Express, controversial satire The Interview, and the Oscar-nominated The Disaster Artist, which came out in 2017. However, Franco has been accused by multiple women of various forms of sexual misconduct, an issue Rogen initially didn’t address publicly.

But in a new Sunday Times interview, Rogen talks—specifically about actor Charlyne Yi, who tried to quit The Disaster Artist because of the allegations against Franco. (She accused the film’s producers of minimizing Franco’s predatory past.) 

“What I can say is that I despise abuse and harassment and I would never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that,” Rogen says.

Rogen also says he regrets the joke he made during his 2014 Saturday Night Live monologue, in which he made light of alleged DMs between Franco and an underage girl. “I do look back at a joke I made on Saturday Night Live in 2014 and I very much regret making that joke. It was a terrible joke, honestly,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Around the time The Disaster Artist premiered, Rogen said in an interview he and Franco would keep working together, but they haven’t since, and Rogen tells The Sunday Times, “The truth is I have not and I do not plan to right now.”

As for their off-screen friendship, Seth Rogen says, “I don’t know if I can define that right now during this interview. I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic.” And while that process has been painful, Rogen knows it’s “not as painful and difficult as it is for a lot of other people involved. I have no pity for myself in this situation.”