Something a bit different from the Sundance Film Festival. James talks about his stint on General Hospital.

For months we’ve obsessed over the reasons behind James Franco’s bizarre-but-fascinating decision to join the cast of General Hospital as a murderous artist named Franco. So when we ran into the coy actor Monday night at a Cinema Society screening of his Sundance-bound Allen Ginsberg biopic, Howl, we asked for — nay, demanded! — a straightforward explanation for his soap-opera move. And he finally gave it to us.

The idea came to him while preparing a second movie with the artist Carter. The new film (which will also feature Catherine Keener) is called Maladies, and Franco plays a former soap star. “Now, just because I’m playing a character who was formerly on a soap opera doesn’t mean I had to go on a soap opera, right?” said Franco. “So going on General Hospital isn’t directly related to Maladies. But we got to talking, like, ‘Hey, what if I really did a soap opera? That would be kind of amazing!’”

It turns out Franco has been a soap fan for a long time. “I was home sick a lot because I didn’t like school when I was little,” he said. “So if I wasn’t watching my VHS copy of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, or Whoopi Goldberg’s movie Jumping Jack Flash — because those were the only two movies we had the foresight to record — I guess I was watching soap operas.” So he called up the folks at General Hospital, who were, of course, ecstatic. He only gave them one bit of direction: “I said, ‘I want to play an artist, and I want him to be crazy.’ And they wrote this character that was better than I could have ever asked for. It was their idea to call the character Franco. I said, ‘That’s crazy. Thank you.’” It was only after he’d signed up that he decided to bring his own crew along to film the filming, he said, “because I wanted to really have ownership over the piece.” (This footage would be part of his yet-to-be-confirmed performance-art show at Deitch Projects’ Long Island City space this spring. And, in true meta form, that show might in turn be taped for a special episode of General Hospital.)

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Thanks to Rachel for the heads up on these! Here’s several more stills and behind the scenes images of James on General Hospital.

GALLERY LINKS:
- Television Series > 2009 | General Hospital > Behind The Scenes
- Television Series > 2009 | General Hospital > Production Stills

Also, here’s a video of James speaking about his character and General Hospital.

James Franco has said that his stint on General Hospital as “bad boy” artist Franco is part of a larger art project, and he’s working on making good on that promise. Though his story arc ends later this month, Franco tells us that this spring he’ll participate in a gallery show at New York’s Deitch Projects that will be shot for a subsequent “special episode” of GH. (This episode will be co-directed by Franco himself.) The Deitch exhibition will relate “to what I’ve already shot on GH,” Franco says. (A spokesperson for the gallery says plans for the exhibition and filming are not yet finalized.)

Of course, Franco has been worming his way into the art world for some months now: teaming up with the video artist Carter for the art film Erased James Franco; schmoozing the booths at Art Basel Miami Beach; presenting at the Guggenheim’s Art Awards; and buddying up to the new head of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (and MoMA chief curator at large), Klaus Biesenbach.

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James wrote this article for the Wall Street Journal about his stint on General Hospital. Check it out!

A Star, a Soap and the Meaning of Art
Why an appearance on ‘General Hospital’ qualifies as performance art

I was recently treated to an early prototype of a dessert that Marina Abramovi?, the “grandmother of performance art,” created with the pastry chef Dominique Ansel. It’s a cylindrical pastry with a lychee center sprinkled over with chili powder and raw gold. I was instructed to kiss a napkin that had been printed with a square of gold powder that would transfer to my face before eating the dessert. This way the dessert would pass through a golden gateway before it was ingested. I did as told, then suggested to the chef that it needed more chili. Was this art?

I have been obsessed with performance art for over a decade—ever since the Mexican performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña came to visit my class at Cal Arts summer school. I finally took the plunge and experimented with the form myself when I signed on to appear on 20 episodes of “General Hospital” as the bad-boy artist “Franco, just Franco.” I disrupted the audience’s suspension of disbelief, because no matter how far I got into the character, I was going to be perceived as something that doesn’t belong to the incredibly stylized world of soap operas. Everyone watching would see an actor they recognized, a real person in a made-up world. In performance art, the outcome is uncertain—and this was no exception. My hope was for people to ask themselves if soap operas are really that far from entertainment that is considered critically legitimate. Whether they did was out of my hands.

As Ms. Abramovi? told me over our dessert tasting, performance art is all about context. “If you bake some bread in a museum space it becomes art, but if you do it at home you’re a baker.” Likewise, when I wear green makeup and fly across a rooftop in “Spider-Man 3,” I’m working as an actor, but were I to do the same thing on the subway platform, a host of possibilities would open up. Playing the Green Goblin in the subway would no longer be about creating the illusion that I am flying. It would be about inserting myself in a familiar space in such a way that it becomes stranger than fiction, along the lines of what I’m doing on “General Hospital.”

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And here is the video where James interviews Marina Abramovi.

I’ve added a few images to the gallery over the last few days, including two more photos from James’ spread in i-D magazine. So check them out!

GALLERY LINKS:
- Television Series > 2009 | General Hospital > Ep. #11941
- Movie Productions > 2010 | Date Night > Theatrical Trailer Screencaptures
- Magazine Scans > 2009 > i-D Magazine (Fall 2009)

And here’s the trailer for Date Night! Can’t wait to see James in action for this one, it looks like a great movie!

Captures from James’ second episode on General Hospital have been added to the gallery.

GALLERY LINK:
- Television Series > 2009 | General Hospital > Ep. #11940

I’ve added captures of James’ first episode on General Hospital. The caps are not the best, but they’re better than nothing. Enjoy!

GALLERY LINK:
- Television Series > 2009 | General Hospital > Ep. #11939

Here’s several new stills of James’ appearance on General Hospital and a promo video featuring him!

GALLERY LINK:
- 2009 | General Hospital > Production Stills

Great interview with James where he talks about his role on General Hospital. Only a few more days until his appearance!

On Friday night, James Franco traveled even farther north than Columbia’s campus for Dia’s Fall Gala at the Hispanic Society on 155th Street. He showed up halfway through cocktail hour with his grandmother. He yawned a lot. Vulture managed to get a few minutes with him, during which he told us a little about his upcoming guest roles on 30 Rock and General Hospital.

Where are you coming from?
I was filming 30 Rock today. It was very fun. I worked with Tina Fey a little bit over the summer on the movie Date Night and I’m assuming she liked the experience and that was why I was asked to do 30 Rock. I play myself but a very strange version. I don’t think it has anything to do with who I actually am.

And you’re also doing General Hospital. Why?
I really don’t know the difference between [soap operas]. The one difference is that General Hospital has developed this whole organized-crime thread.

But why a soap opera at all?
Well … I’ve got other ideas for my participation in this soap opera beyond just being in this soap opera. But it’s been a blast so far. It was kind of mind-blowing. I’ve worked one day on it. It’s one day of a few. But I think we packed seven episodes of my material in. They gave me a script for the day that was as thick as a film script and that’s what we planned to shoot in a single day. No ad-libbing. If I needed it, they said they had a TelePrompTer, but the regulars didn’t use it so I didn’t want to use it, either. Anyway, I’m pretty good at remembering lines.

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Yay, our first look at James on General Hospital!

You guys, we’ve been waiting on pins and needles for this moment, and now we have it: the first images of James Franco in his much talked-about performance on General Hospital.Still no word on who James will be playing (beyond that it has something to do with Jason), but feel free to speculate away based on the image.

And don’t forget: James’s first air date is Friday, November 20th!

Source.