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They starred together in the movie This is The End and became close both professionally and personally – but it looks like this is well and truly the end of Seth Rogan and James Franco’s bromance.
While recently promoting his new memoir, Yearbook, Seth was at pains to distance himself from his former pal and creative collaborator, who’s faced a slew of sexual misconduct allegations.
In 2018 five women came forward to accuse James of sexual misconduct, including sexual coercion and exploitation.
A year later two of the women, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, filed a lawsuit against the James Dean actor, alleging he attempted to use his now defunct acting school Studio 4 to “establish a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education”.
James (43) has denied the allegations but reached a settlement with Sarah and Toni in February this year.
Seth (39) told the UK’s Sunday Times it was no coincidence he hasn’t worked with James in recent years.
“I despise abuse and harassment, and I’d never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that,” he said.
However, Seth hasn’t emerged from the saga scot free.
Last month comedian and actor Charlyne Yi, who appeared in Seth and James’ last collaboration, the 2017 film The Disaster Artist, branded James a “sexual predator” and Seth an “enabler” in an Instagram post.
Enablers, she added, were just as toxic as abusers.
Charlyne (35) claimed the producers tried to bribe her when she wanted to exit the movie because of James.
“Seth Rogen was one of the producers on this film so he definitely knows about the bribe and why I quit,” Charlyne wrote.
“Seth also did a sketch on SNL [Saturday Night Live] with Franco enabling Franco [to prey] on children right after Franco was caught.”
In his interview with the Sunday Times, Seth touched on his controversial 2014 SNL sketch, in which he poked fun at James for allegedly propositioning a 17-year-old girl on Instagram earlier that year.
During the monologue, Seth quipped that to make himself feel better, he’d “decided to prank James Franco” by posing as a “way young” girl on Instagram.
“I very much regret making that joke,” he said.
“It was a terrible joke, honestly. And I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I commented that I’d keep working with James, and the truth is that I haven’t [worked with him since] and I don’t plan to right now.”
His and James’ once-tight friendship has changed fundamentally, he added.
And while the change was certainly painful, “it wasn’t as painful and difficult as it is for a lot of other people involved.“I have no pity for myself in this situation.”
Sources: latimes.com, thetimes.co.uk, nypost.com, vanityfair.com, complex.com, cnn.com
