Seth Rogen Says He Has No Plans to Work With James Franco Again
If you look back at Seth Rogen's career, James Franco was often never too far away. After getting their start together in Freaks and Geeks, the actors headlined Pineapple Express, This Is the End, The Interview, and in what was their last film together, The Disaster Artist.
Shortly after the premiere of 2017's Tommy Wiseau biopic, five women accused Franco "of behavior they found to be inappropriate or sexually exploitative," according to the Los Angeles Times. (Franco denied the allegations, but reached a settlement with two of the women in February.) Then, just a month ago, Charlyne Yi—who played Safoya in The Disaster Artist—wrote in an Instagram post that they tried to quit the film because "James Franco is a sexual predator, they tried to bribe me with a bigger acting role." Franco has not yet responded to Yi's allegations. In the post, Yi accused Rogen of knowing about the bribe, too. Now, in a new interview Rogen gave to the The Sunday Times, Rogen has responded to Yi's post—and why he hasn't worked with Franco since 2017's Tommy Wiseau biopic.
“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 said of Yi's accusations that he knew of Franco's behavior on set.
In the rest of Yi's post, they reference a joke Rogen made on Saturday Night Live! in 2014, where the actor claims he pranked Franco by posing as an underage girl on Instagram. In The Sunday Times interview, Rogen says that he regrets the SNL joke—and left little doubt as to whether or not he'd work with Franco in the future.
“I do look back at a joke I made on Saturday Night Live in 2014 and I very much regret making that joke," he said. "It was a terrible joke, honestly. And 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.”
Elsewhere in the interview, which came on the occasion of Rogen's upcoming memoir, Yearbook (out May 11), he admits that "it is not a coincidence" that his working relationship with Franco seemed to end after the publication of the Los Angeles Times story. When the interviewer asked more about Rogen's personal relationship with Franco, the actor declined to elaborate, but admitted that the allegations changed their dealings with each other.
“I don’t know if I can define [our personal relationship] right now during this interview," he said. "I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic."
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