Actor Charlyne Yi isn’t letting Seth Rogen get away without doing the work. Yi, who has been shedding light on James Franco’s behavior on Instagram during April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, responded to Rogen’s statement distancing himself from his longtime collaborator and friend amid ongoing sexual-assault accusations. Yi posted a checklist of necessary actions for Rogen to take going forward. The list called for Rogen to “apologize to survivors for making their lives even more vulnerable by publicly siding with an abuser, further damaging their careers and safety,†“commit to educating self about coercion, sexual assault, and how to be a protective ally,†and “to promote, protect and hire survivors of sexual abuse and misconduct.†Yi also suggested names of seven actresses for Rogen to apologize to. “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, adding that it was “not a coincidence†that he hasn’t worked with Franco in years. “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,†he said. “I don’t know if I can define that [our friendship] right now during this interview.â€
In February 2021, Franco settled with two former students of his acting studio who in 2019 accused him and his partners of using the school “to provide him and his male collaborators with a pool of young female performers that they could take advantage of.†Yi began speaking up about her experience working with both Rogen and Franco on 2018’s The Disaster Artist in an Instagram post April 8. She wrote that she tried to quit the film after hearing more accusations about Franco, who at that point had already admitted to inviting a 17-year-old girl to a hotel room. In the caption, Yi added, “Seth Rogen was one of the producers on this film so he definitely knows about the bribe and why I quit … White men perform infantilism when it comes to sacrificing their white supermacy & patriachy [sic] bc they actually don’t give a fuck,†she concludes.