After disgrace, will James Franco star in more movies?
It has been quite a while since we last saw Academy Award nominee James Franco, who’s best known for his work in a slew of Judd Apatow-produced projects that feature the likes of Franco’s longtime friend, Seth Rogen. In fact, we really haven’t seen much of James Franco since his run in HBO’s The Deuce, which wrapped up in 2019. Now, with few upcoming projects on his IMDB, will we ever see James Franco again?
Of course, a major part of Franco’s success in movies has to be his involvement with Seth Rogen, who is one of the top Hollywood comedy stars & producers today and has provided Franco with sustainable work over the last decade. That being said, after a slew of sexual allegations, it appears that Franco’s career in movies is as doomed as his friendship with Rogen himself. Care to learn all the details?
Rogen & Franco
Seth Rogen & James Franco first met on the set of the Judd Apatow produced Freaks and Geeks, a comedy-drama series that ran for one season in 1999. The pair, naturally, played a couple of high school stoners, who were constantly trying to prove their good hearts amidst their stupidity and teenage angst.
The comedic duo went on to star in a variety of memorable comedic films, such as The Disaster Artist, Pineapple Express, The Interview, and This Is The End. James Franco even went on to make cameo appearances in some other Seth Rogen led movies, including The Night Before & Knocked Up.
The pair famously also did a parody of Kanye West’s “Bound 2” music video, which saw Rogen sitting on the handles of a James Franco ridden motorcycle as the duo passionately made out, similar to that of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s original take. Seth Rogen even played the role of the Roast Master during Comedy Central’s 2013 Roast of James Franco. It was a comedy match made in heaven . . . right?
This is the end for James Franco movies
In February, Franco settled a 2019 lawsuit alleging that he intimidated students into sexual situations at his acting school.
He has denied all allegations and his attorneys called them “false and inflammatory, legally baseless and brought as a class action with the obvious goal of grabbing as much publicity as possible for attention-hungry plaintiffs”.
The disturbing details of these allegations included Franco being accused of sexual exploitation behavior in 2018, specifically by five different women, two of which were in the actor’s Studio 4 acting class in which Franco taught. Rogen says it isn’t a coincidence that his working relationship with Franco has come to an end and that their friendship has altered as well. “It has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic”.
“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,” Rogen told The Sunday Times earlier this year. This is a change of heart for Rogen as he initially said he’d keep working with Franco in 2018, which is an interview he now seems to have remorse over.
“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 continued. While we understand the reasoning, it’s sad to think that that era of Seth Rogen and James Franco comedies are officially over. That being said, given the allegations surrounding James Franco, we one-hundred percent understand his choice.
