Categories: U View

James Franco: Friend Or Faux?

James Franco has now filled nearly every role in the entertainment industry, moving seamlessly between acting in, directing, writing and producing films, short films and most recently TV. soap operas. His resume reads as a study in opposites, bearing witness to seemingly erratic career choices as he’s elected to take roles in various genre of film and played characters ranging from the romantic lead (gay and straight) to a hapless, perpetually stoned pot dealer.

Franco’s recent decision to play an intense and slightly deranged conceptual artist named, “Franco,” on the soap opera General Hospital found him actually staging a conceptual art show at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which was filmed for the soap and as well as open to the public and invited members of the art community during shooting. In the weeks leading up to the installation/taping/party of the year Franco (the real James Franco??) commissioned a popular soap magazine to run an entire issue devoted to him, which he then liked so much that he paid for a special re-issue in order to have copies on hand to give to friends.

All of this begs the question, is art imitating Franco’s life, or is he intentionally living his life as an ever-increasing reproduction of the art that he has a hand in making? At this stage, no one can tell. The Soap-MOCA exhibit was beyond meta-cognitive, so many layers of farce call into question what is real and what is unreal. Franco is also unafraid to make fun of himself in the name of confusing his public. And confused we are.

One can hardly forget his turn on Tina Fey’s 30 Rock, in which Franco, as with General Hospital, played a goofier version of himself. The punch line in this satire was Franco’s sexual orientation, which has generated a hearty amount of speculation as he has kept intensely quiet and been unafraid to play openly gay characters, most recently the poet Allen Ginsberg. In the episode Franco’s hidden orientation is neither gay nor straight, he is infatuated with a nearly human-sized Japanese sex pillow named Komiko. We the viewers find this out because he has hired Jenna to be his public girlfriend in order to hide his secret. In a clever visual metaphor, the pillow, which Franco totes along in every scene, acts as a visual stand-in for the proverbial elephant-in-the-room question about his sexuality that so many seem to ask.

There are many unknowns about Franco at this point, the largest of which is where the line between art and his private persona falls. What isn’t so ambiguous is that Franco is having a load of fun at the public’s expense; in what seems to be playing out as the greatest senior prank of all time Franco is continuing in a bright career filled with meaningful roles, pursuing various degrees of higher education, and thoroughly befuddling his public, having a laugh along the way.
 

Uinterview User

View Comments

Recent Posts

VIDEO: Kamala Harris & Doug Emhoff Visit Cast Of ‘A Wonderful World’ On Broadway

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cXqdX4pa74E Former Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff went backstage to meet…

8 hours ago

Despite 40-Year Age Gap, Cher & Boyfriend AE Edwards Look Closer Than Ever At ‘SNL50’ Event

Cher and her boyfriend, AE Edwards, made a dazzling appearance at SNL50: The Anniversary Special on Sunday night in New…

9 hours ago

Ryan Reynolds Makes Light Of Blake Lively’s Lawsuit Against Justin Baldoni At ‘Saturday Night Live’ 50th Anniversary Special

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively made a glamorous red carpet appearance at the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special on Sunday…

9 hours ago

VIDEO: Smoke Billows At Toronto Airport After Delta Airlines Plane Flips Over While Landing

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2j7wGMDOa2k At least 17 people were taken to hospital after a Delta Airlines flight arriving…

10 hours ago

Director Of New O.J. Simpson Docuseries Uncovered Incriminating Evidence That Was Never Presented At Murder Trial

Floyd Russ, the director of the new O.J. Simpson Netflix docuseries, American Manhunt: OJ Simpson,…

10 hours ago

Chiwetel Ejiofor & Renee Zellweger Head Down Under To For Premiere Of Final ‘Bridget Jones’ Installment

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renee Zellweger, Leo Woodall and Michael Morris attended the Bridget Jones: Mad About…

13 hours ago