Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013)
Lovelace (2012)
Cherry (2012)
The Broken Tower (2011)
The Stare (2012)
Maladies (2011)
Rise of the Apes (2011)
Rebel (2011)
As I Lay Dying (2012)
Sal (2011)
James explains his magazine wink
“Is James Franco for Real?” That was the question posed in the July 25 cover story of New York magazine that focused on the mercurial actor whose latest film, Eat Pray Love, opens Friday.
The author of the piece, book critic Sam Anderson, comes off as part serious investigator, part fawning fan who is reduced to following the actor into a New York University bathroom to do an interview and later is frustrated that Franco can’t talk more to him since he has a previous commitment with another publication.
The reason for his fevered pursuit? Franco’s re-invention from bland Hollywood pretty boy best known as Peter Parker’s pal in the Spider-Man blockbusters into fascinating renaissance man.
What does Franco think about this story, including speculation that a wink he gives the reporter might have ulterior motives? “Overall, I felt like he was trying to be positive,” he says while speaking to USA TODAY film reporter Susan Wloszczyna from the Vancouver set of his latest film, Rise of the Apes — a prequel to Planet of the Apes. “I feel like, I don’t know. I’m OK with it. I’m OK with any articles.”
He continues: “Sam was calling me and e-mailing me for months and months. I was amenable to an interview but, because of the other obligation, I told him I had to wait. He said, ‘I’m not going to wait.’”
Anderson showed up at a lecture that Franco was hosting at NYU, which turned awkward since he was occupied with presenting performance artist Marina Abramovic to his classmates.
Says Franco: “He was following me around and I said, ‘Fine, I have to go to the bathroom.’ It was five minutes. I should not have given him the time.”
As for that wink, he says it meant “nothing — other than trying to be nice to a guy who was hounding me for months.”