Seth Rogen Asked About James Franco’s Comments Regarding End of Their Friendship

In a cover story with Esquire, he opened up about how he “has never been someone the paparazzi were fascinated by,” which he called a “pretty good version” of fame. However, he hasn’t managed to stay out of the headlines completely.

One of his biggest headline-making stories was the end of his friendship with Franco. The publication asked how it felt for his former collaborating partner to share the status of their personal relationship so publicly, after Franco told Variety in October 2024 that “I haven’t talked to Seth. I love Seth, we had twenty great years together, but I guess it’s over, and not for lack of trying.”

“Honestly,” Rogen recalled to Esquire, “I absorb so little media that it really wasn’t on my radar.”

The publication added, “and that is all he wants to say about that,” in regards to his relationship — or lack thereof — with his Pineapple Express collaborator.

The pair’s longtime working relationship and friendship largely fell apart following the 2018 allegations leveled against Franco, in which five women accused the actor of inappropriate and sexually exploitative behavior while four of them were students at his acting school Studio 4.

At the time of the allegations, Rogen told Vulture that he would continue to work with Franco — but he walked back those claims in a 2021 interview with The Sunday Times.

“And 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 at the time.

Franco pulled out of the public eye amid the allegations and retreated from Hollywood, though he did later admit to having sex with his students during his time as an acting school teacher, leading to lawsuits and a $2 million sexual misconduct settlement in 2021.

Along with his headlines with Franco, Rogen also addressed the criticism he faced over his decision to not have children. Rogen and wife Lauren Miller have been married since 2011, and in 2023, he sparked mixed reactions when he said that their shared decision not to have kids “definitely” helped his career in Hollywood on the Diary of a CEO podcast. 

“People really had strong takes on it, being like, ‘F–k this f–king guy. Who the f–k does he think he is not to have kids?'” he told Esquire. “Well, if you hate me that much, why do you want more of me?”

“You should only have kids if you really want kids,” he said, “and we just don’t really want kids. Time kept going by and the moment where we were like ‘Let’s do it!’ just kept not happening.”

He then recalled how he felt when he sees his friends with children.

“I look at my friends with kids and honestly I feel like some of them are incredibly happy and fulfilled,” he began, before noting that some other friends helped cement their decision. “Some of them seem like maybe they wish they had put a little more thought into it. I just didn’t want to be one of those people.”

While Rogen sat with the idea of not having children and the idea that society expects people to, he asked himself “Why am I supposed to?”

“The most disturbing comment that I saw a lot of was ‘Who’s going to take care of you when you’re old?’ Which to me is very telling. Is that why you’re having kids? Because I have two things to say: One, that’s very selfish to create a human so someone can take care of you. And two, just because you have a kid, I hate to break it to you, that doesn’t mean they’re going to do that.”

This March issue cover story, SETH ROGEN IS THE BOSS NOW by Dave Holmes, is on Esquire.com now and in the March issue, available everywhere by February 18.