James Franco said 'it was hurtful' when Seth Rogen said the two have no plans of working together again

• Franco said "it was hurtful" to hear Rogen's comments that they are not going to work together.
• "But I get it. He had to answer for me cause I was silent," he said on "The Jess Cagle Podcast."

In James Franco's first in-depth interview since sexual misconduct allegations were made by five women against him, the actor shared the status of his relationship with long-time collaborator, Seth Rogen.

In May, Rogen revealed that he and Franco had no plans of working together again due to the allegations against Franco, which were revealed in a Los Angeles Times story in 2018. Franco denied the allegations at the time.

"What he said is true," Franco told SiriusXM's "The Jess Cagle Podcast," which airs Thursday. "We aren't working together right now and we don't have any plans to work together."

"I love Seth Rogen," he added. "I worked with him for 20 years. We didn't have one fight for 20 years. Not one fight. He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator."

The duo have been on screen together since being cast on the late 1990s TV series "Freaks and Geeks." Since then, Franco and Rogen have worked constantly together, including doing a shot-for-shot spoof of Kanye West's music video "Bound 2," which featured Rogen and Kim Kardashian West together on a motorcycle. The two have also starred together in movies like "Pineapple Express, "The Interview" and "The Disaster Artist."

In an interview with The Sunday Times in May, Rogen admitted that the sexual misconduct allegations changed their friendship.

"The truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now," Rogen said of working with Franco.

"I don't know if I can define that right now during this interview," he added of their friendship. "I can say it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic."

In his first interview in four years, Franco told Cagle "it was hurtful" to hear Rogen's comments.

"But I get it, he had to answer for me cause I was silent. He had to answer for me and I don't want that," Franco continued. "And so that's why, you know, it's one of the main reasons I wanted to talk to you today is I don't want Seth or my brother [Dave] or anyone to have to answer for me anymore."

Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Franco revealed that he's a sex addict and had consensual sex with his students, who attended his now-shuttered film school, Studio 4.

However, in a 2018 Los Angeles Times story, five women — four of them students of Franco's — alleged that the actor put them in uncomfortable situations. The Times also chronicled an incident at Studio 4, which Franco launched in 2014.

In June, he agreed to pay $2,235,000 to settle a lawsuit in which he and his business partners were accused of pushing students at Studio 4 to perform explicit sex scenes on camera.

The actor did not respond to Insider's request for comment on his interview with Cagle.