Much controversy still surrounds James Franco who did not receive an Oscar nomination on Tuesday despite his Globes win. He is pictured at the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California,
Much controversy still surrounds James Franco who did not receive an Oscar nomination on Tuesday despite his Globes win. He is pictured at the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California,

James Franco has finally shared his feelings about Seth Rogen’s decision to end their longtime friendship after reports of sexual misconduct were made about “The Deuce” actor.

The stars had been friends for 20 years and starred in several films, including “Pineapple Express,” “The Interview,” and “The Disaster Artist.”

Although Rogen publicly denounced Franco, the 43-year-old revealed he understood his former co-star’s decision to end their relationship amid the sexual misconduct allegations.

During an interview on the SiriusXM program “The Jess Cagle Podcast,” Franco reflected on the damaged friendship.

“Of course, it was hurtful in context, but I get it, you know, he had to answer for me cause I was silent,” Franco told the host.

Franco revealed that the two never fought throughout the course of their long friendship. “We didn’t have one fight for 20 years. Not one fight. He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator,” the actor said.

Franco also touched on some of the accusations of sexual misconduct that were made against him.

“In 2018, there were some complaints about me and an article about me and, at that moment I just thought, ‘I’m gonna be quiet. I’m gonna be, I’m gonna pause.’ Did not seem like the right time to say anything,” he said.

“There were people that were upset with me, and I needed to listen. There’s a writer Damon Young, and he talked about when something like this happens, the natural human instinct is to just make it stop. You just want to get out in front of it and whatever you have to do apologize, you know, get it done. But what that doesn’t do is allow you to do the work to, and to look at what was underneath."

Franco claimed his misconduct, as well as battling with sobriety and sex addiction, allowed him to work on himself. “So I’ve just been doing a lot of work, and I guess I’m pretty confident in saying like, four years, you know? I was in recovery before for substance abuse,” he explained.

“There were some issues that I had to deal with that were also related to addiction. And so I’ve really used my recovery background to kind of start examining this and changing who I was.”

Franco’s full interview will be available on Thursday when the latest episode of the “The Jess Cagle Podcast” is released.

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Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images