How many times has that been asked of James Franco? Franco is used to getting asked the gay question but unlike many other stars who respond with loud outraged denials, the response from Franco is refreshingly candid. Recently in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 127 Hours star addressed the familiar question. Franco stated, “It’s funny because the way that kind of stuff is talked about on blogs is so black-and-white. It’s all cut-and-dry identity politics. ‘Is he straight or is he gay?’ Or, ‘This is your third gay movie —come out already!’ And all based on gay or straight, based on the idea that your object of affection decides your sexuality.”
The actor, who has been in a long relationship with actress Ahna O’Reilly, has never limited his choice of gay film roles. His credits are full of gay characters from Allen Ginsberg in Howl, to activist Scott Smith in Milk and poet Hart Crane in The Broken Tower. Franco continued, “There are lots of other reasons to be interested in gay characters than wanting myself to go out and have sex with guys. And there are also lots of other aspects about these characters that I’m interested in, in addition to their sexuality. So, in some ways it’s coincidental, in other ways it’s not. I mean, I’ve played a gay man who’s living in the ’60s and ’70s, a gay man who we depicted in the ‘50s, and one being in the ‘20s. And those were all periods when to be gay, at least being gay in public, was much more difficult. Part of what I’m interested in is how these people who were living anti-normative lifestyles contended with opposition. Or, you know what, maybe I’m just gay.”
