James Franco At Sundance: Actor Talks 'Interior. Leather Bar.' And 'Kink'

James Franco Talks Gay Sex
ROME, ITALY - NOVEMBER 16: Actor James Franco smiles during a Masterclass and Cubovision Award at the 7th Rome Film Festival at the Auditorium Parco Della Musica on November 16, 2012 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images)
ROME, ITALY - NOVEMBER 16: Actor James Franco smiles during a Masterclass and Cubovision Award at the 7th Rome Film Festival at the Auditorium Parco Della Musica on November 16, 2012 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images)

James Franco’s new art film Interior. Leather Bar., directed by him and filmmaker Travis Mathews, is all about gay sex, and Franco’s damn proud of it.

Premiering at this week’s Sundance Film Festival, the gay S&M film reimagining 40 minutes of footage rumored to be taken out of William Friedkin’s 1980 drama Cruising blurs the boundaries between observer and observed, truth and fiction, delight and pain.

EW talked to Franco about Interior.Leather Bar., and for a separate story, about kink, the documentary he produced about a San Francisco-based BDSM porn company, also premiering at Sundance. Not much was off limits for the Oscar-nominated actor, known for his multiple degrees, his creative projects, and movies spanning the gamut between serious drama (127 Hours), stoner comedy (Pineapple Express), sex and violence filled comedy (Harmony Korine’s upcoming Spring Breakers), and big-budget fantasy (Disney’s upcoming Oz the Great and Powerful).

Hearing an actor enamored by girls and guys the world over talk frankly about sex, gay sex, and bondage was, honestly, completely refreshing. You can almost hear boundaries splinter and crack.

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