Filmmaker Seth Rogan has confirmed that he has no plans on working with his frequent collaborator James Franco who is embroiled in sexual harassment controversy. Rogen and Franco go back to the 90s since they co-starred in the 1999 series Freaks and Geeks and including movies such as Pineapple Express, This Is the End and The Disaster Artist.

In his recent interview with Sunday Times Magazine while promoting his memoir "Yearbook", Seth Rogen said he reflected on his 2018 interview when he said he will keep working with Franco after five women had accused the latter of sexual harassment. “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. “What I can say is that I despise abuse and harassment and I would never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that. However, I do look back at a joke I made on Saturday Night Live in 2014 and I very much regret making that joke. It was a terrible joke, honestly.”

Rogen admitted, during the interview, that his friendship with Franco has been affected after multiple harassment cases. “I don’t know if I can define that right now during this interview. I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic,” he said. He said that it is painful to know about this and added, “Yeah. But not as painful and difficult as it is for a lot of other people involved. I have no pity for myself in this situation.”

In recent times, actress Charlene Yi took to Instagram to reveal she tried to quit Disaster Artist “because James Franco is a sexual predator, they tried to bribe me with a bigger acting role. I cried and told them that was the exact opposite of what I wanted, that I didn’t feel safe working with a fucking sexual predator. They minimized & said Franco being a predator was so last yr and that he changed… when I literally heard of him abusing new women that week.” She also said that Seth Rogen, who was the producer, and the enablers should be held accountable.

On April 8, 2021, she wrote, "Seth Rogen was one of the producers on this film so he definitely knows about the bribe and why I quit. Seth also did a sketch on SNL with Franco enabling Franco preying on children. Right after Franco was caught. Franco has a long history of preying on children. This is on top all the corrupt laws that protect predators made by violent white men. Denying/gaslighting is a tactic that abusers and enablers use that is psychological violence, & has serious affects: the survivor loses sense of reality/intuition to protect self from targeted again, PTSD, suicidal thoughts/suicide, etc. This month is Sexual Assault Awareness Month when it should really be something men educate themselves about their whole life and learn how to be there & protect women, nonbinary, trans, etc—who are targeted. Edit: gaslighting can also lead to self-blame and denial in which the survivor forgets or minimizes the abuse, continuing relationships with abusers, and not being able to see redflags from predators who may target them."

 

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