Everything we know happened between Seth Rogen and James Franco before ending friendship of 20 years
Seth Rogen and James Franco’s friendship defined an era of American comedy, yet haven’t starred in any project together since The Disaster Artist in 2017.
The drama film about Tommy Wiseau making The Room marked the final time the pair worked together, with James Franco later confirming their friendship is ‘over’.
This came after sexual assault and misconduct allegations were made against Franco, with Rogen finally speaking out just this week, saying ‘it really wasn’t on my radar’ when Franco said their friendship was over.
The full story however sees a 20 year friendship which dominated American comedy for years before it publicly fell apart.
Cult TV classic
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Both Franco and Rogen appeared in Freaks and Geeks, a now beloved cult classic which was cancelled after just one season.
It features so many names that starred in it before they got famous it would make your head spin, with the pair joined in the cast by Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini, Busy Phillips, Martin Starr, Shia LaBeouf, and Rashida Jones.
The next time Franco and Rogen worked on a project together was Knocked Up, where a now famous Franco cameoed alongside other Freaks and Geeks alumni.
Pineapple Express and more
The next project after this is arguably the one that many still know the pair for, Pineapple Express.
The film brought together the pair with other frequent collaborators such as Danny McBride and Craig Robinson.
They would then appear in numerous films together off the back of this, from This Is The End, in which they both played heightened versions of themselves to animated sex comedy Sausage Party, and The Interview, in which they infiltrated North Korea to ‘interview’ and kill Kim Jong Un.
James Franco accused and sued by victims
During the press tour for The Disaster Artist, which had been eyed for Franco’s second Oscar nomination, five young women came forward to allege that the actor had been sexually inappropriate with them.
This happened while he acted in the position of either their mentor or teacher at an acting school he had started.
Franco was accused of creating the school to facilitate a ‘pipeline’ of young women to sleep with him. Though he rejected the idea of the ‘pipeline’ he admitted to sleeping with students.
The actor was also accused by an ex-girlfriend of ‘forcing’ her to perform oral sex on him in a car and Freaks and Geeks co-star Busy Phillips accused him of ‘violently’ shoving her to the ground and screaming at her while filming a scene.
Franco denied the allegation by his ex-girlfriend via his lawyers, stating the allegations were 'not accurate', while Phillips stated that he has 'apologised' to her.
What has Seth Rogen said and how did James Franco respond?
While Seth Rogen initially came out and said in 2018 he would continue to work with Franco, he later walked these comments back in 2021, saying: “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.
“I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.”
Franco said this ‘hurt’ in an interview with the Jess Cagle podcast, before later saying in a Variety interview: “No. 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 was questioned about this in an interview with Esquire for his new show The Studio, which the interviewer said appeared to not be a surprise for the comedian – but that he also didn’t seem too happy with it.
He said: “Honestly, I absorb so little media that it really wasn’t on my radar”, with the interview noting ‘that is all he wants to say about that’.
Topics: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Film, TV and Film, Celebrity
Michael Slavin