Highlights
- Seth Rogen tells the NYT he hasn’t spoken to James Franco “in a long time” and has “no plans” to work with him.
- Rogen says his public stance on Franco hasn’t changed: “Nothing has changed since the last time I talked about all this.”
- Franco settled a $2M sexual misconduct lawsuit in 2021 and is now attempting a Hollywood comeback.
Don’t hold your breath for a Pineapple Express reunion. Seth Rogen is making it crystal clear that his days working with James Franco are over, and he’s not exactly rushing to explain why.
In a candid new interview with The New York Times, Rogen shut down any speculation about a professional reconciliation with his former best friend and longtime collaborator. The “Knocked Up” star told the Times he hasn’t spoken to Franco in a “long time” and has “no plans” to work with him in the future.
Rogen didn’t sugarcoat things, but he also wasn’t about to put all his cards on the table. “I’m trying to think how much I want to personally share about this,” he prefaced to the Times.
He continued with one of his most blunt assessments yet of where things stand. “I honestly think the nuance of it is too personal for me to get into right now. It is a very personal thing. 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. I have not worked with him in years.”
The Superbad producer went on to cite concern for others who might get swept up in any public airing of grievances. “The personal side of it is just so nuanced, and it involves people that I don’t know if I should be dragging into this. I don’t know what I would benefit from getting deeply into it. Nothing has changed since the last time I talked about all this, and I haven’t worked with him in a really long time and I have no plans to.”
When Times interviewer Lulu Garcia-Navarro pressed him directly on whether the two still talk, Rogen kept it simple. “I haven’t talked to him in a long time, no.”
The two built one of Hollywood’s most beloved bromances over two decades. Their collaboration began with Paul Feig‘s short-lived coming-of-age series Freaks and Geeks and extended to films such as Pineapple Express, This Is the End, and The Disaster Artist. They were the kings of a certain era of raunchy, heart-filled studio comedy. All of that changed in 2018.
Five women came forward and accused Franco of sexually exploitative behavior during his teaching tenure at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Franco denied the allegations, calling them “not accurate,” but he settled the accusers’ lawsuit in 2021 for $2 million.
Rogen, who had initially said in 2018 that he would continue working with Franco, reversed course in 2021. “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 Sunday Times Magazine.
That was five years ago. His position clearly hasn’t softened.
Meanwhile, Franco has been trying to stage a comeback. He teased at Cannes last month that he’s appearing in a “big studio movie,” his first in nearly a decade, and his Italian drama Hey Joe premiered in select theaters and on VOD in March.
Franco has also spoken openly about his attempts to reach out to Rogen. At the Rome Film Festival in 2024, he didn’t hide his heartbreak over the rift. “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,” he told Variety.
Rogen isn’t slamming the door dramatically. He’s just not opening it either. And based on everything he said to the Times, that’s exactly where he intends to stay.
