James Franco has spoken out on the dissolution of his decades-long friendship with Seth Rogen, addressing their estrangement during a conversation with Variety at the Rome Film Festival, where he promoted Hey Joe — his second film release since 2019 following multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
“I haven’t talked to Seth. I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess it’s over,” Franco revealed about his relationship with Rogen, 42, his former collaborator on numerous productions, including Freaks and Geeks, Pineapple Express, This Is The End, and The Disaster Artist. He added, “And not for lack of trying. I’ve told him how much he’s meant to me.”
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The separation follows Franco’s extended hiatus from Hollywood after five women, including four former acting students, accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior in a 2018 Los Angeles Times exposé. A subsequent lawsuit filed by two students in 2019 concluded with a $2.235 million settlement in 2021.
The settlement agreement included a joint statement: “While Defendants continue to deny the allegations in the Complaint, they acknowledge that Plaintiffs have raised important issues; and all parties strongly believe that now is a critical time to focus on addressing the mistreatment of women in Hollywood.”
During this period, Rogen publicly distanced himself in 2021, stating it was “not a coincidence” that their working relationship had ended when the allegations surfaced. “The truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now,” Rogen said regarding future collaborations with Franco.
The controversy encompassed additional allegations, including claims from actress Violet Paley regarding forced sexual acts, which Franco denied. He later admitted to having sexual relationships with students in a 2021 interview.
Reflecting on his professional pause, Franco expressed gratitude for his current opportunities, telling Variety: “I’m so grateful to be working. I did go through a lawsuit, and during that lawsuit I wasn’t working. But then COVID hit so everybody wasn’t working. So, I don’t know, it was all… I mean, we were all kind of in it. So it was sort of like, ‘I don’t know what I am.’”
The actor described his period away from the spotlight as transformative: “But I did certainly use the time to, I hope, good purpose. And whatever had been going on with me before, I had to change my whole way of life. So I am proud of the kind of work I did during that time. And yeah, I wasn’t working in movies, but I certainly was doing a lot of work to change who I was.”
Franco has resumed his career with European productions including Hey Joe and The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure, with several additional projects in development, including a film directed by Vincent Gallo that faced its own controversies. Addressing his past, he acknowledged, “Being told you’re bad is painful. But ultimately, that’s kind of what I needed to just stop going the way I was going.”
The actor also revealed personal growth during his hiatus, particularly in his romantic life with actress and filmmaker Izabel Pakzad: “I didn’t really have a personal life. I had friends, but it was always sort of enmeshed with my work. And so, yeah, I put a lot of time into my personal life. I’ve had a relationship for seven-and-a-half years. I was never able to do that before. I was just too scared, really … to have any sort of real intimacy with anyone.”
Franco described his previous workaholic tendencies, noting that he’s now able to “just be there for the project” and is no longer “trying to fill some hole with work.” Regarding his current standing in the entertainment industry, Franco maintains a forward-looking perspective: “I mean, it is what it is. I’ve honestly moved past it. It was dealt with, and I got to change. So that’s it, it’s over. I mean, I’ve worked in the U.S. too. So I’m just trying to move on.”
