Originally appeared on E! Online
This is the end for James Franco and Seth Rogen's friendship.
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Three years after Rogen expressed regret for initially standing by Franco amid sexual misconduct allegations and said he didn’t see them working again, the "127 Hours" actor shared an update on where they stand.
"No. I haven’t talked to Seth," Franco told Variety in an interview published Oct. 25. "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."
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Franco — who first worked with Rogen on the beloved ‘90s series "Freaks and Geeks" and later costarred in films such as "Pineapple Express," "This Is The End," "The Interview" and "The Disaster Artist" — faced a variety of allegations of sexual misconduct in the late 2010s, including from several former acting students in 2018, though he denied any wrongdoing at the time.
READ James Franco Breaks Silence 4 Years After Sexual Misconduct Allegations
The following year, he was sued in a class-action lawsuit by two former acting students, alleging sexual harassment, exploitation and coercion. The case was settled for $2.2 million.
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But while Rogan initially showed support for his longtime friend, confirming to Vulture in a 2018 interview that the allegations made against Franco in the press didn’t change anything about his willingness to work with him in the future, he later admitted the allegations took a toll on their friendship and working relationship.
"I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James," he told The Sunday Times in 2021, "and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.”
Franco responded to Rogen's comments months later.
"I love Seth Rogen," he noted on "The Jess Cagle Show" in December 2021. "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. And we just gelled and what he said is true, we aren't working together right now and we don't have any plans to work together. Of course it was hurtful, in context, but I get it."
And he further shared insight into where he had crossed the line with his students — but stressed never with anyone involved in the lawsuit. "Look, I'll admit I did sleep with students," he said. "I didn't sleep with anybody in that particular class. But, over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students and that was wrong."
The actor's career stalled for years in wake of the allegations. However, this year, Franco returned to the screen for the first time in five years, appearing on the TV series "Karantina" and the movie "The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure."
"I’m so grateful to be working," Franco told Variety. "I did go through a lawsuit, and during that lawsuit I wasn’t working. But then COVID hit, so everybody wasn’t working."
He continued, "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."
And these days, Franco is focused on the future.
"I mean, it is what it is," he said. "I’ve honestly moved past it. It was dealt with, and I got to change. So that’s it, it’s over."
