James Franco

Interview, Feb, 2003 by Nicolas Cage

James Dean left big shoes to fill. But to actually put them on, stomp around, and make them your own is something else indeed--something that James Franco embraced when he took on the title role in 2001's critically applauded cable TV biopic James Dean. Whether appearing in big-budget blockbusters like Spider-Man or art-house labors of love (like the just released Sonny, in which he plays the title character, a young American gigolo, in Nicolas Cage's directorial debut), either way Franco artfully balances his marquee looks with the heart and depth of a character actor, radiating a brooding malaise. To get into Franco's world, we asked Cage to give him an interrogation that proved at turns intense, literary, and full of laughter. So meet 2003's new-style leading man; the world will soon be his.

NICOLAS CAGE: Hello, James.

JAMES FRANCO: Hey.

NC: You were just in Australia shooting The Great Raid [due out later this year], a war movie directed by John Dahl. How was that?

JF: It was okay. I was there, like, four months. I guess, after doing Windtalkers [2002], you have an idea what a war movie can be like.

NC: Yeah, it can be pretty shocking to the nervous system. And now you're in Chicago working on Robert Altman's new film, The Company [to be released this fall]. Did you ever see his movie Secret Honor [1984]? Philip Baker Hall gives one of the greatest performances I've ever seen, as Richard Nixon.

JF: I was watching the DVD of Hard Eight [1997] with Paul Thomas Anderson's commentary, and he said that's where he found Philip Baker Hall. Sorry, hold on one second. [speaks to someone else in room] I just ordered a lot of vegetables. I'm playing a chef in this movie.

NC: You're learning how to make vegetables?

JF: [laughs] How to cut them and look as if I know what I'm doing.

NC: Now, you spent your childhood in Palo Alto, California, didn't you?

JF: Yeah. It's a great town to grow up in. I always wanted to act, but I was far enough from San Francisco, and definitely from L.A., that it didn't seem like a reality. I was kind of scared of failing at acting. I didn't really do it until my last year in high school. I started with an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's The idiot, then we did Woyzeck, by Buchner. The teacher was into a little crazier fare than the usual high school stuff.

NC: And then you went on to major in English at UCLA. Why did you choose English?

JF: My parents weren't high on me going to an arts school, and if I was going to go to a "regular" university, English seemed like the right place to be.

NC: Do you have any favorite books that you can recommend?

JF: When I was in Australia I had quite a bit of time--war movies take a lot of setup. So I waded through Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. If you have time I recommend it.

NC: So I assume you're familiar with Rimbaud. I think you'd make a great Rimbaud.

JF: When I did James Dean I went to the Deauville Film Festival in France, and they were saying, "Our James Dean is Rimbaud."

NC: When did you first discover James Dean?

JF: I was aware of him in high school. He still seemed so alive. He was so relevant to us, as teenagers. Then, when I started taking acting seriously, I looked at him more from a student's perspective.

NC: Did he inspire you to become an actor?

JF: Definitely. I mean, just how seriously he took it.

NC: I remember at one point between takes on Sonny we were talking about a hand gesture Elvis Presley made--a strange, effeminate gesture--and you pointed out that he was a Dean fan, and that Dean used the same gesture in Giant [1956], when he's kicking Rock Hudson's ass. You demonstrated it for me and said something like, "Rock, you shouldn't've done that!" And I about had a panic attack, because I had no doubt that Dean had entered the room. [Franco laughs] You're a shape-shifter. I mean, you definitely have your own style, but every now and then these other iconic images come into your face. There's one scene in Sonny where you seem like Humphrey Bogart, and there are others where I could have sworn you were Rudolph Valentino, Frank Sinatra, Warren Beatty. Well, enough about that. Let's talk about our movie.

JF: [laughs] Yeah.

NC: I was impressed by the intensity of your research process for Sonny. I might even say that you put yourself in danger when you were meeting those gigolos. Did you ever feel fear?

JF: A little bit. When I research a role it does get a little crazy and maybe even a little stupid. I never want to say, "I held back here," or "I could have done that but didn't." Nothing bad happened to me [researching Sonny], but there was one time when a couple of guys were going out on a date, and they took me so I could see how it all went down. In the back of my mind I thought, "If we get busted this will be hard to explain." [both laugh]

NC: Do you remember the two gigolos we interviewed at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop in New Orleans? It seemed as though you incorporated the personalities of all the various gigolos you met, depending on Sonny's trick at the time.