One of the things that’s very much part of my public image is the question of my sexuality. It’s not something that bothers me in the slightest. It hasn’t gone away and I get asked about it from all sides. It’s partly my doing and partly not my doing…I think that the people I have known who are performers who haven’t publicly come out didn’t because they’re afraid it’ll hurt their careers. And they’re afraid they won’t be able to play straight roles anymore. I think I could see a really big name coming out and doing that. I think the time is about right. I’m not an authority on this but if I think about it for a second…if there’s somebody that was well respected and very secure with their career, I could see it happening in a very positive way.”
— Gay-baiter extraodrinaire James Franco discusses putting his sexuality on the hook with Attitude magazine (via PinkNews).
Photo: Wikipedia
Derek Williams
Beautiful hunk of man, I could stare at all day, and all night.
ncman
@Derek Williams: Really? I’ve never understood his appeal. He’s always looked kind of seedy to me. He always looks like he needs a shower and his clothes are dirty.
MikeE
Wow, James Franco admits that his constant pushing the limits of how OBVIOUSLY gay he can appear has actually lead to rumours that he just MIGHT be gay?
Thanks for pointing that out to us, Captain Obvious.
I USED to like Franco.
Honestly, this obsession of his with being perceived as gay is getting incredibly annoying and off-putting.
Kieran
If only all American men could take as secure and non-chalant an attitude toward sexuality as James Franco, homophobia would soon wither, rot and die on the vine.
Fidelio
he’s most beautiful when he smiles 🙂
gaymaniac
He is just cool and I have no problem with him talking, about our people all the time.
Aidan8
I like Franco. Not everything he does is brilliant — but that’s rare anyway. I think he’s got talent and I like that he’s pursuing his doctorate, studying literature, playing with boundaries, etc. Couldn’t care less about his sexuality — and it seems that’s how he views the issue in others as well. We need more of that from the world, whether L, G, B, T or somewhere else on the spectrum.
As for some LGBT folks who say he is “obsessed” or “playing” the LGBT community, I don’t understand the reaction. Should only gay artists work with “gay themes,” whatever that means? Are we saying that it’s wrong for him to push boundaries or explore gay sexuality in art simply because he’s straight? Shall we impose the same limit elsewhere? e.g., is it wrong for a lesbian artist to explore straight sexuality or trans issues? Is it wrong for a black artist to deal with issues she finds in white or brown cultures? I could understand having an issue with him if it were clear he was co-opting LGBT culture as opposed to exploring it. (similar to the huge number of examples of black music and culture being co-opted, e.g. Harlem Shake) The LGBT community has plenty of enemies… I don’t think Franco is one of them.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@ncman:
Agreed. I’ve never understood this man’s popularity, nor his desperation to stay in the spotlight–no matter how gay, or straight that light may be.
TinoTurner
Why is he written about on this blog daily??
jackpapa
I understand his popularity: Beauty from the inside out. I understand why he is written about here so often: Provocative ideas and actions that push the discourse forward to the next consideration. I also understand why so many of my brothers here use language designed to alienate an ally: It is the same internalised self hatred that causes so many among us to be such hyper-critical negative bitches to so many of our own gay brothers. “Comes the revolution” maybe we will all have open minds and hearts.
TinoTurner
@jackpapa: Progressive ideas? Naah. Why not have us celebrate someone that is promoting something other then himself? How do you know his insides are beautiful?
CivicMinded
“gay-batter”? Call him what he is: CT
Cee
I agree with him. I think J.P. Pitoc’s first “big” role was playing a gay go-go dancer in the movie “Trick” and he hasn’t been able to catch a break since. I think he also has a martial arts background that help land him a small part in one of the episodes on the TV show Bones with David Boreanaz. I think it’s been proven that playing a gay role can hurt an actor’s career if they are not already well respected and secure in their career like James Franco stated. You gotta be a Will Smith, or an Al Pacino, or Leonardo DiCaprio. Playing gay didn’t ruin their career because they were already so well respected as actors.
TinoTurner
@Cee: You dont think it was because Trick was an awful movie about promiscuous sex?
man5996853
@Cee…meh. As charming as I found Trick to be, JT Pitoc was an average actor at best. I don’t think that playing gay had anything to do with his inability to get work.
Rockery
He is beautiful and his brother is hot too, they have good genes
amedas
I wonder why he’d go into producing movies for the gay niche when he could have ventured into the m/m arena (for mostly straight women). Maybe he has the right financial backers, so good for him.
Toro666
@Aidan8: No, he’s not an enemy per se, just opportunistic. Because of his standing as a white, heterosexual male he has mobility that is not available to otherwise gay men. The problem with this guy, as with gay-for-pay actors is that they can take cover in their heterosexuality, cash in on gay men who all they need is a body to salivate over and the assurance that said body is heterosexual in order to solidify authentic masculinity. JF knows this fully well. We don’t need HIM to represent gay male culture when there are plenty of gay men who do this, and yet you don’t see their names on a site that is supposed to be about gay men. Where are Ricky Martin? Chad Allen? Wilson Cruz? Christian Vincent, etc? No where to be found. And yet, these are handsome men. But they will never really be ‘men’ because homophobia is rooted in misogyny that has declared for centuries that gay men are NOT men. And gay men feed into this by worship idols such as JF over actual gay men. JF can flirt with the gay male community because he knows they’ll throw their money at them. This is different because white heterosexual men, all heterosexual men really, are at the top of the sexual pyramid. He does not risk anything. By retaining his heterosexuality, all is does is gain, gain, gain… and it devalues gay men as a whole. What we say by valorizing this opportunist is ‘yay for straight men, read: real men, who cares about the actual homos that risk social alienation on a day to day basis.
Derek Williams
@Toro666: You want major stars James Franco, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhall, Matt Damon, Leonardo Di Caprio, Keanu Reeves, RIver Phoenix, Christopher Reeve, Michael Caine, Michael Douglas all of whom have played gay roles, and others, to bow out of gay roles and leave it only to gay actors? Gay actors like Rock Hudson and Dirk Bogarde have been playing straight roles since movies were invented and in theatre before and since. Acting is pretending to be other people – they don’t have to be all typecast.. Do you really want John Malkovich to be an actual psychosexual murderer before he is eligible to play Ridley #2? Does Superman really have to fly?
Alienating powerful allies like the above is completely counter-intuitive and counter-productive. The gay for pay straight actors would be hugely better off having absolutely nothing to do with us at all. Their markets are far better served for salivating straight women and admiring straight men, large numbers of whom their gay roles alienate. If Brokeback Mountain, The Birdcage, Milk and the upcoming LIberace movie (deemed too gay for backing by Hollywood) had never been made, all the straight actors who played them would be not one bit worse off, and arguably far better off with their heterosexuality set in stone.
When a straight man climbs into bed with another straight man to play a gay role he is doing his job – acting, but he is at the same time showing the world he is prepared to sacrifice his career to do it. It is always safer to be straight and be seen as straight, gay is always risky, and the market absolutely minuscule by comparison with the mainstream heterosexual market. At the same time, he is also being activist, because he is showing the world there is nothing to fear about homosexuality, whereas if gay man climb into bed with each other, for a start the straight curious audience vanishes, and the rest expect it of us anyway, and little is achieved on the activist front at least.
All your post is heartfelt but I suggest misguided. I for one welcome the erosion of fear brought about by the willingness of straight actors to take on risky gay roles, when their comfortability makes it completely unnecessary.
keep it real
I always like James he sees to be pretty cool and have no hang-ups about playing gay roles, and i truly believe the man plays on the gay side of life.
keep it real
I bet my last dollar bill Mr. Franco had some fun with the boys somewhere in his life….