Seth Rogen Says He Doesn’t Plan to Work With James Franco After Sexual Misconduct Allegations
Seth Rogen says he no longer plans to work with James Franco: “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.”
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- Film Updates (@TheFilmUpdates) May 9, 2021
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Seth addressed the allegations, as well as his 2014 “Saturday Night Live” opening monologue, where he joked about a 17-year-old girl’s allegation that Franco had direct messaged her on Instagram to meet up.
“I decided to prank James Franco,” Rogen says during the monologue. “I posed as a girl on Instagram, told him I was way young. He seemed unfazed. I have a date to meet him at the Ace Hotel.”
“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,” he said. “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.”
Allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Franco in 2018, when several students at his former acting school accused him of intimidating them into sexual situations, at the time he said that he would continue to work with Franco. But Rogen says that has now changed:
“I also 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,” Rogen said.
In response to the Times’ comment that the situation “must have been painful,” he said: “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.”
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