Harking back to James Franco’s history of facing sexual misconduct claims back in 2014 and 2018, Seth Rogen has recently said in an interview with The Sunday Times on Sunday that he has “no plans” of working with Franco again, while also expressing regret for a “terrible” joke he made during his opening monologue as a host on Saturday Night Live back in 2014.
“I decided to prank James Franco,” Rogen says during the monologue. “I posed as a girl on Instagram [and] told him I was way young. He seemed unfazed. I have a date to meet him at the Ace Hotel.”
Despite this, the “Green Hornet” actor reaffirmed his stance of standing against sexually inappropriate behavior.
“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 told The Sunday Times.
Franco had faced sexual misconduct allegations back in 2014 when a purported private conversation between him and a 17-year-old girl visiting New York from Scotland surfaced online. In the exchange, Franco appears to be convincing her to meet him in a hotel room.
Then, in 2018, the “Disaster Artist” star was again hit with similar claims, this time from five female students at the Studio 4 film school which he founded. The allegations turned into a sexual misconduct suit which was settled by February 2019.
Franco denied the allegations both times, while Rogen kept a working rapport with him, even starring alongside Franco in films like Sausage Party, The Interview, The Disaster Artist, and Zeroville during that period. The latter even went on record to say that he would still continue to work with Franco in the wake of the 2018 allegations.
Coming out of his recent interview, however, Rogen claims that things have now changed, even stammering as he was asked if his personal relationship with Franco is now over.
“Erm, 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.”
Nonetheless, Rogen spared no pity for his soured friendship with Franco, as whatever the persons involved went through is certainly much worse.
“Yeah [it was painful]. But not as painful and difficult as it is for a lot of other people involved. I have no pity for myself in this situation.”
