Lee Daniels says that gay rights are the civil rights of our era, so I like doing a movie like Milk or Interior Leather Bar where I can bring themes and ideas I’ve been engaged with, and do it in such a way that those ideas are pulled into the mainstream more. In the case of Milk, once I did that movie, it kind of opened me up to a lot of things I hadn’t really thought about because they hadn’t been a part of my life. But then with something like Interior Leather Bar or Milk, those are obviously engaging with gay themes, gay rights, gay politics. It wasn’t like, “We need to do this because he was gay.” It’s because of their art, and then their art was partially informed by their sexuality.
What is it about the gay experience that you relate to so strongly?įranco: Some of it’s coincidence, or the gay aspect of the project - like Hart Crane in The Broken Tower or Allen Ginsberg in Howl - is secondary. James, many people won’t be surprised to see you in a movie like this, because as a major male movie star, you’ve been unusually willing to play gay roles and investigate gay themes in your projects. Yesterday, the actor and his I Am Michael director Justin Kelly sat down with Vulture to explain their movie, Franco’s homophilia, and the unlikely love scene he almost shared with his Pineapple Express co-star Danny McBride. The latter film has gotten audiences talking, especially since it touches on the sort of hot-button issues of sexuality that Franco often seems compelled to.
James Franco is no stranger to Sundance, and this past week, he premiered two films at the film festival: True Story, where he stars as an accused murderer who steals the identity of a disgraced journalist (Jonah Hill), and I Am Michael, where he plays real-life figure Michael Glatze, a former gay activist who leaves his boyfriend (Zachary Quinto) behind after declaring himself straight and becoming a pastor.