GQ: Talking Cornrows with James Franco

author: Gel | date: 7 May, 2012 | categories: Interviews
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Also spotted was the face of Gucci’s Made to Measure ad campaign and jack-of-all-trades James Franco, who looked pretty sharp himself in one of the brand’s peak lapel “Marseille” suits. We chatted him up about his brother’s big GQ moment, his go-to cardigan, and of course, this look.

GQ Eye: We’re at a Gucci event, you’ve been the face of the brand, and you obviously wear a lot of Gucci on and off the red carpet. Do you have a favorite look or piece you’ve worn over the years?
James Franco:
I’m a big cardigan sweater guy.

GQ Eye: We’ve seen you rock a particular navy one a few times, even boldly over a suit.
James Franco:
I love that one. Although I’m wearing a lighter blue one in this new movie directed by Seth Rogen. We all play ourselves, so I’m of course wearing Gucci. I’m wearing a sweater I’ve worn before, but it’s a thicker and light blue.

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Interview Magazine: Girls Gone Wild

author: Gel | date: 7 May, 2012 | categories: "Spring Breakers", Interviews
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Chances are good that if you have an Internet connection, you’re already aware of how Harmony Korine spent his spring break. Photos from the Florida set of Korine’s latest film, Spring Breakers—some taken by paparazzi, many shot by the cast and crew themselves—began appearing online in March, quickly invading Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and virtually every other image-sharing social-media channel, and instantly generating the kind of viral buzz that ought to be the envy of every big studio marketing department in the country. In fact, Spring Breakers hadn’t even wrapped shooting (and won’t be in theaters until later this year at the earliest) when images of the film’s principals—Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Benson clad in neon bikinis, and James Franco done up as a gun-toting vision of Kevin Federline by way of The Dude—passed into pop culture’s visual lexicon. “I liked the idea of the film as a social experiment,” says Korine. “It was like there were two movies—the actual movie, and then the one that the media, paparazzi, and the people tweeting photos were also creating.”

Spring Breakers stars Gomez, Hudgens, Benson, and Korine’s wife, Rachel Korine, as a quartet of college students who land in jail after robbing a restaurant to fund their spring break trip. The foursome is bailed out by Alien (Franco), a drug-dealer and gunrunner, who seduces the girls into his world. Drugs, sex, and violence ensue. (Gucci Mane, Glee’s Heather Morris, and skateboarding weirdoes the ATL Twins also feature.) “When I wrote the script, I started thinking about girls in bikinis with guns, wearing ski masks,” Korine recalls. “I was like, ‘Where would you see that?’ And the idea of spring break came to me. I just started imagining girls on spring break robbing places.”

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James Owns More Suits Than He Knows What to Do With

author: Gel | date: 7 May, 2012 | categories: Interviews
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Being a face of Gucci, James Franco gets a lot of nice swag. “Every event, they give me a new suit,” he explained at a cocktail party hosted by GQ and, yes, Gucci. “I’ve been working with them for years, so I have more suits than a person could ever wear in, like, five lifetimes. Sometimes I give them back.” Does he wear them all? “Sometimes we use them in art videos we make. And some of my friends are my size, so they wear them.” More on his modeling side gig, below.

So, are you one of those actors who rolls your eyes when you have to do fashion shoots?
When you pose for a photo shoot, a lot of actors will say, “I haaate it.” But now that I’ve shot campaigns, I see that it’s just like a performance. I think what actors don’t like about it is that there’s no mask that they’re wearing — no role, like there is in a movie. But it’s kind of the same thing as making a movie: You’re trying to bring people into that character and tell a story. It’s the same thing in fashion.

Photo shoots can be really awkward.
If you have a bad director, you don’t want to open up to him or her. And if you have a bad photographer on a photo shoot, you just feel cheesy. But if you have a good director or photographer, it’s like just playing a role.

Do you do anything on shoots to feel comfortable?
I just tell them to play music and I go with the groove, and then it’s over.

Source: NYMag

James on the cover of 10 Men

author: Gel | date: 7 May, 2012 | categories: Gallery
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James is on the cover of the latest issue of 10 Men. Check out photos from the shoot in the gallery. Thanks to James Franco Italia for the images!

GALLERY LINKS:
- Magazine Scans > Scans from 2012 > 10 Men
- Photoshoots > Outtakes > 2012 > Session #006

Editor’s Letter

So, let’s just state the f-ing obvious: we’ve chucked yet another celebrity on the cover of our fine men’s mag – Mr James Franco. Is he a celebrity? An actor? Or just a caffeine junkie? You decide. I personally think he’s rather hot in a little Gucci made-to-measure number.

The rest of our issue is dedicated to the Autumn/Winter shows. Boys, boys, boys wearing top togs and the odd naked torso. You may think we’re a little pre mature but have you never heard of a waiting list? At least thanks to us there’s a slim chance you can beat it.

And in the style of our blog, that’s enough said about the issue. Short and sweet. That’s all you’re getting from me, Tenners. See you back here in September.

Bye-bye for now.

Antony Miles
Editorial Director

James on Francophrenia, Lip-Synching to Selena Gomez, and ‘Superficial’ Bloggers

author: Gel | date: 7 May, 2012 | categories: Interviews
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We sat down with Franco and Olds to talk about the inspiration for the project, how they think it will be received, and whether it’s hard for Franco to be taken seriously as an artist when the blogosphere is “sniffing each and every one of his farts,” as one commenter so boldly put it.

James, why did you bring your own film crew to the General Hospital shoot?
Franco: There was a big response to me being on a soap opera, and at a gala for MOCA right after I started on General Hospital, these artists were coming up to me saying, “Oh, I wish I had a forum like that. I wish I could be on network television doing weird stuff.” It made me think about having a little more ownership over this weird insertion of myself into this soap opera. So I got permission to bring my own film crew.

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James talks ‘Fresh’ Trip to ‘Oz’

author: Gel | date: 29 April, 2012 | categories: "Oz: The Great and Powerful", Interviews
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The only thing more curious than the announcement that Sam Raimi would be directing a new Wizard of Oz adventure was the film’s casting.

Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz signed on as two wicked witches in Oz: The Great and Powerful (which serves as a prequel to the classic 1939 adventure). Michelle Williams is set to play Glinda the Good Witch, and James Franco replaced Robert Downey Jr. as Oscar Diggs — a.k.a. Oz.

Little is known about the film, but at yesterday’s CinemaCon Convention in Las Vegas, James opened up for the first time about what attracted him to the role. He said, “I get to play all sides of Americana – the idea of American heroes. It’s like he’s part cowboy, part weird magician, part con man, part romantic man. I really got to play everything from classic American cinema.”

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James Franco Teases Screen Time With Rihanna

author: Gel | date: 29 April, 2012 | categories: Interviews
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James Franco recently made headlines when he posted a video of himself singing Rihanna’s Dr. Luke joint “You Da One” on the Internet. The clip was short, sweet and a bit out of nowhere.

But if you think that Franco was in one of his performance-art moments when he created the viral video, think again. It turns out he’s just a fan of the colorful singer. “[It] didn’t take a lot of work [to lip-synch to her song],” he confessed to MTV News at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “But I do like Rihanna.”

In fact, his biggest confession about his connection to the singer came next. It seems the two were thisclose to working together on her 2011 “We Found Love” video. As the story goes, before male model Dudley O’Shaughnessy landed the role as Ri’s troubled leading man, Franco had the opportunity to be cast as one-half of that rocky romance.

“She actually asked me to be in that video, the one with the relationship that gets crazy,” he dished. “I couldn’t do it. But, I guess, I hope that that means there’s mutual love between us.”

Well, apparently these two are getting a second chance to work together, and this time it’s on the big screen. Franco teased that Rihanna may appear in pal Seth Rogen’s flick “The Apocalypse,” which follows a slew of celebs playing themselves. They’re partying at Franco’s house when they learn the apocalypse is coming.

“I think she’s gonna be in the new movie that I’m doing, Seth Rogen’s directorial debut,” he shared. “I think she has a little part in that.”

Source: MTV News

Happy 34th Birthday James!

author: Gel | date: 19 April, 2012 | categories: James News
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Our guy finally turns 34 today! From Finding Franco, I’d like to wish James a very happy birthday! And if you participated in the birthday project this year, do not forget to check it out now!

http://jamesfrancobirthday.tumblr.com
http://jamesfrancobirthday.tumblr.com
http://jamesfrancobirthday.tumblr.com

James Reveals How He’s So Productive

author: Gel | date: 15 April, 2012 | categories: James News
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On Thursday night, James Franco was in New York for a discussion and signing of his book at Manhattan’s absurdly exclusive Core Club, a private club located in an east Midtown office building. If the book’s title sounds familiar, it should. Franco used as source material the 2007 British bestseller The Dangerous Book for Boys that takes a nostalgic look at male childhood with such lessons as how to tie a knot and how to find true north. I was “loosely inspired by that other book,” the suited actor explained, while lounging in the club’s private theater. “I guess you could say it was a fucked-up version of that.”

P.S. 1 founder Alanna Heiss, who ran the discussion and curated the 2010 show, quizzed him in front of a packed house about his artistic inspirations, the choices he made in the show, and the images he included in the book that reference his own boyhood. Speaking of one creepy image, which appeared to picture a terribly wounded man, Franco explained that when he was 12, he and some friends “burned some of our G.I. Joes as a comment on what was going on in the Gulf War at the time.”

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James packs MOCA for lecture and book-signing

author: Gel | date: 15 April, 2012 | categories: James News
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James Franco is as meta as it gets, the ultimate in creative cross-pollination. He’s an actor-turned-artist-turned-author-turned-actor-playing-an-artist-named-Franco in the soap opera “General Hospital.” His new self-referential filmic offshoot, “Francophrenia” documents that experience. He’s also been cast in the upcoming Seth Rogen movie, in which he plays — who else — the actor-artist-author James Franco.

Drawing on all those areas of interest, Franco appeared at MOCA on Saturday in conversation with art theorist and Rhode Island School of Design digital culture lecturer Francisco Ricardo. The sold-out event –- which drew an appropriately young, hip-looking crowd of roughly 200 — marked the release of Franco’s new book, “The Dangerous Book Four Boys.” The book is a companion to the 2010 New York exhibition of the same name and collects interviews, photographs and multimedia artworks around the themes of childhood and media, among other things.

Not surprisingly, however, Saturday’s conversation defied compartmentalization and strayed much farther afield. After a somewhat heady and hilarious dissection of Franco’s short film “Dicknose in Paris” (a clip was shown), the conversation ricocheted among topics, including Franco’s love of Faulkner; insider stories about director Nicholas Ray; Natalie Wood and Dennis Hopper during the filming of “Rebel Without a Cause”; and the upcoming MOCA show called “Rebel.” The latter, a high-concept group show that Franco conceived, is inspired by the iconic James Dean film and opens in May. It’s brimming with art world star power with works by Ed Ruscha, Harmony Korine, Damon McCarthy, Paul McCarthy, Douglas Gordon, Terry Richardson, Aaron Young and Franco.

Click here to read the rest.