Rogen is framing this as a deeply personal matter, emphasizing that the 'personal side' of his split from Franco involves nuanced dynamics and people he won't drag into public discourse. He's keeping things diplomatic while making clear where he stands professionally.
Sources say Rogen has been distancing himself from Franco for years — ever since the 2018 allegations surfaced, it became untenable for him to remain publicly close to someone with that kind of baggage. Rogen's carefully worded statements suggest genuine hurt mixed with strategic career preservation.
Franco settled a class action lawsuit in 2021 for $2.23 million after five women, four of them his acting students, accused him of sexually exploitative behavior in 2018. Rogen and Franco haven't collaborated since 'The Interview' (2014), meaning nearly twelve years have passed without a joint project.
Rogen just put the final nail in the coffin of one of Hollywood's most iconic comedic partnerships. After nearly a decade of silence and distance, this isn't ambiguity — it's a shutdown.
Seth Rogen is done pretending there's any chance he'll work with James Franco again. In a new interview with The New York Times published Friday, Rogen was asked directly about his relationship with Franco in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations that derailed Franco's career back in 2018. His answer was about as definitive as it gets: "I have not worked with him in years and I have no plans to." When pressed on whether he even speaks to his former collaborator anymore, Rogen added flatly, "I haven't talked to him in a long time, no." This isn't some recent falling out — these two were once Hollywood's most reliable comedy duo.
Rogen and Franco met on the set of Paul Feig's short-lived NBC series "Freaks and Geeks" back in 1999, when Rogen was just 16 years old and Franco was 21. They went on to star together in a string of beloved comedies throughout the 2000s and 2010s: "Knocked Up," "Pineapple Express," "This Is the End," and "The Interview." That partnership spanned roughly two decades of collaborative success — but that era is officially over now, at least from Rogen's perspective.
Rogen tried to leave the door slightly cracked during our conversation, insisting there's still a "personal side" to their relationship that's too complicated for public consumption. "I honestly think the nuance of it is too personal for me to get into right now," he told NYT's Lulu Garcia-Navarro. "There’s the public-facing side of it, which I’ve spoken about, and I have the same stance publicly that I’ve had, and I think the proof is in the pudding." Translation?
He's not going full scorched earth, but he's also absolutely not planning a reunion anytime soon — or ever, for that matter. The elephant in the room remains Franco's 2018 implosion. Five women, four of them his acting students, accused him of sexually exploitative behavior.
Two of those women filed a class action lawsuit against him in 2019, claiming Franco "engaged in widespread inappropriate and sexually charged behavior towards female students by sexualizing their power as a teacher and an employer." Franco settled that case in 2021 for $2.23 million. That's not ancient history — that's barely five years ago. And Rogen has been navigating the fallout ever since, carefully choosing his words while maintaining obvious distance from his former friend and frequent collaborator.
Franco himself addressed their estrangement when speaking to Variety in 2024: "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." That quote from Franco reads like a eulogy for their friendship — one-sided grief from someone still hoping for reconciliation that clearly isn't coming. Rogen even admitted in a 2021 interview with The Sunday Times that he'd regretted his 2018 statement suggesting he could work with Franco again, putting whatever remained of that possibility to bed years ago. This week's NYT interview is just the final confirmation: the friendship is dead, the partnership is over, and Rogen has moved on.
