James Franco and Seth Rogen had one of the best bromances in Hollywood for years.
However, after sexual misconduct allegations arose against Franco, Rogen broke off their partnership saying he would never work with Franco again.
Franco is finally speaking out about the end of their relationship.
James Franco still loves Seth Rogen
James Franco and Seth Rogen made a lot of movies together and many of them were very successful.
It all started with an uncredited cameo for Franco in Rogen’s 2007 hit movie Knocked Up. After this, the two started working hand-in-hand.
In 2008, they co-starred in Pineapple Express, followed by movies like This is the End in 2013, The Interview in 2014, Sausage Party in 2016, and The Disaster Artist in 2017.
In an interview with SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Podcast on Wednesday, Franco recalled how the two were the closest of friends and great working partners.
“I just want to say, I absolutely love Seth Rogen. I love Seth Rogen,” Franco said. “I worked with him for 20 years, we didn’t have one fight. For 20 years, not one fight. He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator. We just gelled.”
However, things ended when sexual misconduct allegations were leveled against Franco.
With that in mind he said he understood why Seth Rogen took his stand, saying he had plans to work with Franco after the allegations.
“Of course, it was hurtful in context, but I get it, you know, he had to answer for me cause I was silent,” Franco said.
James Franco working on himself since allegations
James Franco said he was silent about the allegations at the time because he decided to make a point of listening rather than talking when the claims against him arose.
“In 2018, there were some complaints about me and an article about me and, at that moment, I just thought ‘I’m gonna be quiet. I’m gonna be, I’m gonna pause.’ Did not seem like the right time to say anything,” Franco said in the podcast.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2018 that five women, four of them acting students, accused Franco of sexually inappropriate behavior.
People pulled records from the Los Angeles Superior Court at the time, stating that he agreed to pay $2,235,000 in a settlement.
“So I’ve just been doing a lot of work,” Franco said on the podcast, “and I guess I’m pretty confident in saying like, four years, you know?
“I was in recovery before for substance abuse. There were some issues that I had to deal with that were also related to addiction. And so I’ve really used my recovery background to kind of start examining this and changing who I was.”
Franco also said he struggled with sex addiction after he sobered up and that was even harder.
“I got hooked on it for 20 more years. The insidious part of that is that I stayed sober from alcohol all that time,” Franco said. “And I went to meetings all that time. I even tried to sponsor other people.
“So in my head, it was like, ‘Oh, I’m sober. I’m living a spiritual life.’ Where on the side, I’m acting out now in all these other ways, and I couldn’t see it.”
Franco said he didn’t want to hurt people, but he admitted that he did sleep with students.
“There were certain instances where, you know what, I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn’t have been,” Franco admitted.
The full SiriusXM interview with James Franco is streaming now.