Dave Franco Reveals How He Botched His Proposal to Alison Brie Despite His Best Efforts

Then couple have been married for nearly five years, but when he first popped the question, things got awkward.

Dave Franco and Alison Brie will soon be celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary! However, their journey to the alter apparently got off on a hilariously awkward first step.

Franco sat down with James Corden on Wednesday's The Late Late Show -- and was joined on the couch by four-time Oscar nominee Annette Benning -- where he opened up about how his proposal to Brie turned out much weirder than he ever intended.

"My wife and I, we met at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Over that weekend, she was wearing this silver Mardi Gras mask on her head, and I'd try to take it from her and she wouldn't let me take it. It was this playful back and forth, Franco recalled. "And when she left New Orleans, I was still there for work, she left a little note for me."

"What she didn't know was that I kept the mask," he continued. "So, cut to five years later, we're going up to Big Sur and I decide this is the trip where I'm gonna propose. I knew she wanted to pick out the ring herself, so I was like, 'I'm not gonna have the ring, but I've got the mask. That's the special thing I've got."

The day before the trip, Franco came to the decision that he should have a "placeholder" ring, just for when he pops the question.

"So I go down the street to his old Hollywood antique store, and I get this vintage stone ring that I thought was cool, it was like 10 bucks," he recalled, explaining that it was "just something to put on her finger."

So, the big night finally came, and Brie was out on the balcony of where they were staying, and Franco decided that it was the perfect time to do the deed.

"So, she turns around, I'm on one knee, I'm wearing the mask and holding up the ring," Franco shared. "But, because it had been five years, she couldn't place the mask. She didn't know what it was!"

"What she sees is me wearing this weird, stupid mask holding up this janky stone ring," he continued. "So the entire proposal is her saying, 'What is happening right now?' And it's me trying to explain how sweet it is that I kept the mask for five years!"

ET's Rachel Smith spoke with Franco back in July 2020, where he opened up about making his directorial debut with the horror film The Rental, in which he cast Brie as one of the main leads. This proved to be invaluable to him while making his first feature film.

"First off, the fact that she is such an incredible actress, she made my job so easy. She would just nail it on the first take every time," he explains. "And then on top of that just having someone to come home to at the end of the day."

"As a first-time director, there were moments where I would get in my head and start to doubt myself and she was there to build me up in the right way and remind me that we were doing good work."

Check out the video below to hear more.

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