After a star-studded comedy roast fueled by a million gay jokes, James Franco once more has responded to perennial gossip about his sexuality. The gay rumors, Franco says, aren't true. But he wishes they were.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Franco discusses his art, his life and his sexuality in both realms. When asked about his reaction to his recently televised roast on Comedy Central, Franco was adamantly unruffled by the jabs.
"I was like, 'Great! Bring on the gay jokes!' because these aren’t insults at all," he told the Beast. "I don’t even care if people think I’m gay, so it was like, 'Awesome!' I mean, I wish I was. … I wish I was gay."
Earlier this year, Franco seemed even more nonchalant, saying: "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.”
He has, at times, spurred the rumors about his sexuality. Back in 2011, he told Entertainment Weekly, "[Y]ou know what, maybe I'm just gay."
In his Daily Beast interview, Franco blames speculation about his sexuality on his numerous film portrayals of gay men which range from Allen Ginsberg in "Howl" to activist Scott Smith in "Milk."
Outside of these mainstream Hollywood portrayals, much of Franco's work also spotlights LGBT representation. One such example is "Interior. Leather Bar," a "homo-sex-art-film" that premiered at Sundance this past January. He also donned drag for his Hitchcock-inspired art installation at Pace University recently.
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