Before Garrett Hedlund won the role of Dean Moriarty in Walter Salles’ ‘On the Road’, there were reportedly many characters who really wanted the role – now we know that one of them was James Franco. In an interview with the Huffington Post, he talks about watching the movie and attending the Q & A with Kristen Stewart in Toronto. 
He says, “I saw On the Road at the Toronto Film Festival. I remember auditioning for that movie three or four years ago opposite Josh Hartnett -- needless to say neither of us got the roles based on young Kerouac and Cassady. I played young Ginsberg in Howlsoon after that. It has taken a long time for On the Road to come out and over the course of those 50 years the material has changed, because we have changed.”
Of course, now that the film has come out, Hedlund has been getting extremely strong notices for her performance as Moriarty, and his co-stars [including Kristen Stewart] have also been getting good reviews. However, the film itself has been getting mixed notices, mostly for not capturing the zeitgeist feel of the novel. Despite this, Franco clearly seems to think that he missed out – what do you think? Would it have been good to see him as the iconic character of Dean Moriarty or was it better to see him as the iconic character of Allen Ginsberg?
