Inside Dave Franco's Complicated Relationship With Brother James

Still very much in the biz—writing, directing, acting and often collaborating with wife Alison Brie—Dave is proud of the name he’s built for himself and knows his brother is too.

"At this point," he added, "I think he’s excited just to see me trying new things and to see me grow."

After all, he’s been working on his craft for quite some time. After falling in love with movies while working at a small video store as a teen, Dave moved from Palo Alto, Calif., to L.A. to attend USC and was urged by James' manager to take an acting class.

Having "never performed in any way" and being “very shy” at the time, “I remember being in this class, and I hated it at first,” the 41-year-old recalled on a July 2025 episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast. "Because every time I was on stage, I was so nervous. But in the back of my head, I was like, 'This is a path into this business, and I want to stick it out.'"

After landing a role in 2007’s Superbad, Dave went on to act in Scrubs, 21 Jump Street, Warm Bodies and the Neighbors movies. And while he made small appearances in a few of James’ movies—including 2008’s Milk and 2011’s The Broken Tower— the two didn’t costar in a film until 2017’s The Disaster Artist, which also features their brother Tom Franco, Alison, and James' former friend and collaborator Seth Rogen. 

The reason for the wait?

"When I was first starting out, at every audition and meeting, they wanted to talk to me about my brother. And I understood that," Dave explained to TIME in 2017. "But I didn’t want to be referred to as James Franco’s little brother for the rest of my life. So I made a conscious decision to carve my own path and separate myself from him in work.”

But "after a while it got to the point where I said, 'F--k it. He’s my brother. I love him. I respect him. And we have similar sensibilities,'" he added. "And on top of that, it felt like the right project and the right dynamic between our characters. In the end it was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had on set."

When James won the 2018 Golden Globe for this portrayal of Tommy Wiseau in the film, he gave a shout-out to Dave.

"When I went to NYU, I always said I wanted my own Coen brother—someone to collaborate with," the 48-year-old said in his acceptance speech. "I realized this year I had my own Franco brother. I love him more than anything."

After seeing James take the stage in a Time’s Up pin, several women expressed outrage on social media. Days after the award show, the Los Angeles Times published an article in which five women accused him of sexually exploitative and other inappropriate behavior. Then in 2019, two former students from James' since-closed acting and film school Studio 4—one who had been named in the article—filed a lawsuit against him and others that included accusations of sexual misconduct and fraud.

His attorney denied the allegations in both the article and lawsuit. In 2021, James and the other codefendants agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle the lawsuit.

For years, he stayed silent on the allegations. However, months after the settlement, James spoke about the accusations and admitted he'd slept with students from his film school.

"There were certain instances where, you know what, I was in a consensual thing with a student," he said on a 2021 episode of The Jess Cagle podcast, "and I shouldn't have been."

And he doesn’t want his past to affect his brother’s future (For his part, Dave hasn't publicly commented on the allegations against James). 

"In that silence in the vacuum of me speaking out, now my family and friends have had to answer for me. And I don't think that's right," the 127 Hours actor added. "I don’t want to have anybody have to answer for me."