the awards editions 2010-2011
the awards editions 2010-2011 the awards editions 2010-2011
DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN Photo: Jeff Vespa/ContourPhotos.com
JJAMEs FRANcO ON THE pERFORMANcE OF HIs lIFE By mike ryan ames Franco describes his purpose on a movie set as “serving the director’s vision.” Considering his performance in Danny Boyle’s latest film, 127 Hours, the actor deserves a robust tip. Franco stars as Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who famously severed his right arm to escape a boulder that pinned him in a canyon for five days in 2003. But this is no standard biopic: It’s virtually a one–man show of survival, humor and surreal grace that has put both Franco and Boyle on this year’s Oscar shortlist. Movieline spoke with Franco about acting alone, the audience reaction to 127 Hours and why his personal life is not the performance art piece you might have heard. MOVIELINE: In 127 Hours there’s a scene where Aron is recording a goodbye of sorts because he’s accepted that he’s going to die. He thinks he hears someone above and screams maniacally for help. Later, he watches himself scream back on the video and says to himself, “Don’t lose it.” When you’re filming that scene, did you mean ‘don’t lose your sanity’ or ‘don’t lose your will to live?’ JaMEs FraNcO: I guess a bit of both. You know, you might say that they kind of go hand in hand. I would imagine if I was in that situation there is a real pull to just get desperate. There are moments when he’s first trapped and he tries to pull his hand out with brute strength — you would try and do that! And it leads to some foolish acts. He drinks too much water. Or even when he basically says, “Screw it,” and drinks the rest of the water. I can relate to moments like that. I was just — ugh, I don’t care, just do it. And then you have to face the consequences. So I think in the moment where he says, “Don’t lose it, Aron,” he has another side of himself that was an engineer [and] has been in dangerous situations. So I think he’s calling on that side of himself to help him think his way out. MOVIELINE: In 127 Hours there are a lot of scenes that break the tension, like the talk show scene. You had fun during that scene, didn’t you? FraNcO: I like that scene. I like when that scene comes on [laughs]. And that was a late addition because Danny wrote the original script and then he brought Simon [Beaufoy] on and I think that was Simon’s idea. Because I saw the original videos and Aron does not do that. Some of the videos in our film are verbatim, but that one is not. But Aron, you can also say, can be a very goofy guy and likes to have fun. Just the humor in general, I knew and Danny knew, were essential to this movie. You needed that balance and you needed it early on. You know, you get a lot of it at the top because humor is so powerful and it really brings the audience toward the character and it gets the audience on the character’s side. And you really need a little bit of that goofiness because it’s just disarming. But most people who come in to see this movie know what’s going to happen — right? MOVIELINE: I’d say that’s true. FraNcO: So as funny as you get, it’s also always tempered by this knowledge. So it’s great! We actually get our cake and eat it, too! You can be goofy, but it’s almost like, in inverse proportions, the goofier you are the weightier it gets. So in the false video, the faux talk show, the goofier that I am ... the more poignant it’s going to be. Because it’s a guy using humor to face himself and to also try and escape a situation but also face a situation. MOVIELINE: The arm–severing scene obviously gets quite a squirm from viewers, but somehow nothing like the scene of you removing, moistening and replacing your contact lens. FraNcO: Really? I did [the scene], but I don’t think it was in that shot. There was a different part where — and I don’t even know if it ended up in the movie, it might be there for a second — where they shot another guy because I don’t have contacts. And I tried and I tried and you don’t want it to be ruined because somebody is saying, “Looks like somebody doesn’t really have contacts.” So I think he got an extreme close— up with somebody’s eye doing it — but I did it as well. MOVIELINE: Where did so much bizarre imagery come from? There’s Scooby–Doo, the beverage scene... FraNcO: [Laughs] That’s all right, because that’s part of Danny’s taste. I actually always laugh when it’s the Bill Withers song playing and it cuts to these old commercials of [laughing] people on the beach with the waves hitting them. It’s Aron’s thirst, but that’s Danny’s style bringing in that kind of thing. I think one of the things that Danny wants to do is challenge himself. He wants to use stories and material that hasn’t been tackled or use old genres — let’s just say 28 Days Later, the old zombie genre — and make it fresh and he wants to entertain. He’d challenge himself by saying, “Here’s something that maybe can’t be done: A guy alone, but how do I make that entertaining?” He wants to challenge audience but he also wants to entertain audiences. MOVIELINE: Do you feel that the media is fair to you? I mean, between the coverage of General Hospital and the pictures of you online sleeping at a lecture, is that fair? FraNcO: I think a lot of things about this. I got to a point with my career — we’re talking five or six years ago now — where I was doing projects that I didn’t want to be doing, and I didn’t have faith in myself that I could do stuff that I’m interested in: Work with people that I admire. I take full responsibility, but I looked for advice from people and I listened to advice too much instead of listening to my own taste and looking for things that just interested me. So now that’s what I do. And a big part of that is understanding ... I’m sorry, this is such a big answer. As an actor, I now understand my part, my role, in a movie is to serve a director’s vision. That’s what I believe. So, I think it’s my job to serve a director’s vision. I didn’t understand that before, as an actor. I was, in a way, trying to direct movies from an actor’s standpoint — and that’s just craziness. It can’t be done and it makes the process really unpleasant and it doesn’t lead to the best work. Because I have that understanding now, I only want to work with people who I look up to or whose work I respect. Or! Or if it’s a situation that interests me for some reason or another. Seth Rogen taught me, “Don’t do any movie that you wouldn’t go and watch if you weren’t in it.” That’s what he believes. That’s really good advice — I follow that to an extent. But there will be some movies that I’ll do where I may get something else out of it. Like Eat Pray Love. You know what? If I get to work with Julia Roberts in a romantic kind of movie that’s based on a book that a bunch of women readers have just loved — that’s kind of like the pinnacle of that kind of thing. I just want to experience that and if I only have to work a week on it. Why not? You know? Why not? Just go and do that. But, also, because I’ve come to the understanding that my role as an actor is to serve somebody else’s vision, I want to have other outlets. I want to have situations where it can be my vision. It’s just another way of being involved in films or writing or whatever, it’s just a different kind of orientations. I’m collaborative. I love collaborating. It’s just taking a different position in the collaboration. I can’t even remember what your question was. MOVIELINE: Do you feel that the media is fair to you? FraNcO: Things like a picture of me sleeping in class? What am I going to do? It actually wasn’t class; William Kentridge was giving a talk that I didn’t need to be at. It’s kind of OK with me because I think it’s very hard for people. People don’t want the guy from Pineapple Express to be going to Yale and getting a PH.D. They don’t like it. I think people just want to ... If they can’t get pictures of me drunk coming out of a club, the worst they can get of me is sleeping in a lecture. OK. If they want to paint the picture of the stoner going to school, it’s kind of okay with me because it actually takes a lot of pressure off. If that’s the way they want to depict me, it’s fine because my schoolwork isn’t a performance. I’m going there because I’m getting so much out of it and I’m getting to work with all of my favorite writers or professors. So, if that’s how they want to depict it, it’s not taking away from why I’m there. You kind of have to roll with it. movieline.com 19
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