Dave Franco Says He Doesn’t Owe Brother James for His Success:

Dave Franco may have entered Hollywood as James Franco’s younger brother, but he feels he’s grown into his own person.

In a recent interview with Bustle, the Regretting You and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t star, 40, said that that despite James’ efforts to secure him an agent when he began acting, “no one was going to hire me just because I was James Franco’s little brother.”

“If I sucked, I would’ve disappeared very quickly,” Dave said. The youngest Franco (Dave and James have a middle brother named Tom, 45) made his film debuts in the 2007 movies After Sex and Superbad, some eight years after James, 47, broke out with a role in the television series Freaks and Geeks alongside Superbad‘s Seth Rogen.

Dave and James acted for the screen together a number of times in the 2000s and 2010s. Both actors appeared in movies like Milk, The Broken Tower, Zeroville and The Disaster Artist, the latter of which James also directed. The brothers’ acting careers diverged in the 2020s, though; James has only appeared in four movies or television series since 2020 after he was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by five women, four of whom were his acting students. (Franco settled a lawsuit with two of the women in 2021.)

Dave, meanwhile, is still working with Rogen, who previously collaborated frequently with Dave’s brother. James said as recently as October 2024 that he and Rogen were no longer on speaking terms.

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As Dave told Bustle, James still follows his career. “At this point, I think he’s excited just to see me trying new things and to see me grow,” the actor said of his sibling.

Dave’s new movie Regretting You is in theaters now. His next turn in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t hits theaters Nov. 14.