LOS ANGELES: James Franco has played a wizard, doctor, gangster rapper, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and himself, all within the past year. In addition to acting, Franco is a teacher, a spokesperson for the Italian fashion brand Gucci, a published author, artist and director.
Does the 35-year-old actor ever feel like he’s taking on too much? It doesn’t seem like it. In 2013, Franco appeared in both big budget films such as Oz: The Great and Powerful and This is The End, and smaller independent movies such as Spring Breakers and his directorial film As I Lay Dying.
In his latest project Homefront, the Oscar-nominated actor plays an ambitious small-town Southern methamphetamine dealer.
Gator’s decisions led both him and those around him down a dark path. Did you empathise at all with his choices?
Here’s a guy who just hasn’t succeeded in life. He’s really tried to pull things together, and he just wants what we all want — a good life, comfort, money and success. And so, he’s presented with a shot, an opportunity, and unfortunately it means that he has to hurt somebody or kill somebody to fulfil it. So, of course, I don’t agree with that, but I can understand somebody that is ambitious or wants to make something out of his life.
What do you enjoy about exploring darker characters?
Villains can often be one note and I would say in that case, it’s not fun to play the villain. It’s fun to play the villain if he a) has dimension and b) the villain gets to do all the things in the movie that in life he would get punished for. In the movie, you’re applauded for them if you do them with panache. And that’s why it’s more fun to play the villain.
You’re in so many different things that crop up around the same time. Do you ever feel your celebrity sometimes status overshadows the work that you do?
I guess that’s just the price I have to pay. It’s not like I’m going and begging to do some of these projects. They’re favours or they’re fun … I’ve decided I can’t really control people’s perceptions of me. All I can do is decide on what I work on and how hard I work on it. So if that’s what happens, people think they see too much of me, then oh well.
The thing that is wrong about that is that people think I’m doing it just to get attention. No. If I go out and put myself in public or promote something in a big way, it’s because I am doing things that are not The Avengers, that are not Thor. They need all the promotion they can get because I want them to do well.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2013.
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