Seth Rogen has confirmed he has no plans to work with James Franco again. Rogen and Franco were frequent collaborators, having worked together on a number of projects including Pineapple Express, This Is The End and The Disaster Artist.
In 2018, five women came forward and accused Franco of sexual harassment. The lawsuit alleged that the women, students at the acting school Franco founded, were pushed into being part of explicit sex scenes "that went far beyond the standards in the industry".
Franco's lawyer Michael Plonsker denied the accusations and called the lawsuit "ill-informed" at the time. Franco reached settlement agreements with two of the women, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, earlier this year.
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When the accusations first came to light, Rogen said that he would continue to work with Franco. In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, however, he says he's had a change of heart.
"I 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," he told the publication.
When asked what he thought about the accusations and whether he believed them, or even knew about them, Rogen replied: "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."
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Rogen also acknowledged a joke he made on Saturday Night Live back in 2014 which referenced Franco messaging a 17-year-old girl to ask for her phone number. "I very much regret making that joke," he said. "It was a terrible joke."
The actor concluded that the end of his working relationship with Franco was "not a coincidence", and that the allegations had very much had an impact on their personal relationship too. "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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