Interview

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A quick Google search of the name James Franco reveals, unsurprisingly, pictures of Franco as James Dean, whom he played in a 2001 television movie, as well as some pictures of him looking intensely handsome like James Dean and some pictures of him just looking intensely handsome because that's how James Franco looks when he has his picture taken. There are also the attendant interviews and message boards and discussion groups and rumor pits. But the search also reveals videos. Funny videos. There's a clip of Franco reenacting a scene from The Hills with actress Mila Kunis. There's a clip with the title "Acting With James Franco," in which he forces his younger brother Dave to play Sal Mineo to his Dean in a scene from Rebel Without a Cause [1955]. There's even a clip of Franco weeping over his mother Betsy's handling of the death of his childhood pet, an incontinent cat named Toby. (There is also a clip of his mother's rebuttal-"Have you ever heard of toxoplasmosis?")
For his part, the 30-year-old Franco, who grew up outside San Francisco in Palo Alto, California, has adopted the time-honored actorly practice of seeking out opportunities that play against type-and this year, he appears to have found two such roles. There is, of course, his recent turn as Chong to Seth Rogen's Cheech in the surprise stoner-comedy hit Pineapple Express, which reunited him with Rogen and producer Judd Apatow, both of whom he worked with on the cult TV series Freaks and Geeks. And then there is his role in Gus Van Sant's Milk, a film about the life of openly gay San Francisco city supervisor and activist Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn), whose assassination in 1978 rendered him a symbol for the cause of gay rights in America. (Franco plays Milk's campaign manager and longtime lover, Scott Smith; the movie is set for release on November 26, one day before the 30th anniversary of Milk's killing.)
Sandwiched between Pineapple Express and Milk is an appearance this month alongside Richard Gere and Diane Lane in George C. Wolfe's Nights in Rodanthe. Franco also recently moved from Los Angeles to New York City to pursue his M.F.A. in writing at Columbia University. So who is the real James Franco? An existential handwringer? A joker? A smoker? A midnight toker? Maybe we'll never know. But calling from his home in Portland, Oregon, Franco's Milk director, Van Sant, gives us a glimpse.

GUS VAN SANT: How are you doing?

JAMES FRANCO: Pretty good. I'm in New York, which is weird.

GVS: Why?

JF: I don't know. It feels like I just saw you, but now I'm in New York, and we're talking on the phone.

GVS: Where are you staying?

JF: At the Bowery Hotel, which is actually really cool. It has a great interior and everything. I'm moving here, so I have an apartment, but it's not furnished yet. It's pretty coincidental, but I think the B-52s used to own the building it's in.

GVS: Oh, really?

JF: Yeah. It's funny because in my apartment in Los Angeles, I lived under this woman-your friend-who is a costume designer from Idaho. You would visit her, and you guys would all sing the song "Private Idaho" by the B-52s, which is where the title of your movie [My Own Private Idaho, 1991] came from. You know, one of my favorite Interview interviews was you and River Phoenix. But I guess he was interviewing you.

GVS: Yeah. I remember transcribing that one myself.

JF: Oh, really?

GVS: Yeah. River recorded it, but I transcribed it.

JF: You were going to do a movie with River about Andy Warhol, right?

GVS: Yeah. River kind of looked like Andy in his younger days. But that project never really went forward. I wanted to set it at Serendipity, the restaurant where all of the art directors and advertising guys and gallery people went.