Dave Franco doesn't believe he is successful because of his brother, James Franco

He told Bustle: "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."

The 40-year-old star's brother - who has retreated from Hollywood in the wake of being accused of sexual misconduct in 2019 - is very supportive of his career.

Dave said: "At this point, I think he's excited just to see me trying new things and to see me grow," he reflected.

The Neighbors actor is married to Alison Brie and he doesn't mind taking a back seat to her success.

He said: "If the downside of working with my wife is that people are saying, 'Oh, that's just Alison Brie's husband,' that's fine. It's worth it."

In 2012, Dave admitted his relationship with James had added pressure when he was first starting out as an actor.

He told Entertainment Weekly: "People expect me to be this great actor.

"When I first came here from Palo Alto to be an actor, I was just like any other kid. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. But because of my last name, people paid more attention to me. They expected more from me. They assumed I would succeed in this crazy business."

Dave and Alison recently starred together horror movie Together and the actor previously admitted the intimacy between their characters "goes to such an extreme level" that he didn't think he could have made the movie with anyone other than his wife.

He told Colider: "It goes to such an extreme point where we truly looked at each other at the end of each day, and we were like, 'We could not have made this movie with anyone else.'"

Alison - who has previously worked with Dave on movies like 2023's Somebody I Used to Know - said the couple's "shorthand has gotten shorter and shorter" in their professional relationship.

She explained: "I think, to do this project, we have acted in some things together, and by this point, Dave has directed me in a couple of movies, we wrote a film together.

"Our shorthand has gotten shorter and shorter to where it's like a mind-meld, eye-contact thing.

"We've been together over a decade, so has this couple in the movie. We're very selective about projects that we will act in together.

"We read scripts quite often, where we would act together, and it's all about which one makes the most sense, and this one did."