the awards editions 2010-2011

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.
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