James Franco has a new interview with The Upcoming talking about his Spring Breakers character and working with director Harmony Korine. When asked about the director, Franco says, “Well, I have always loved his movies. I remember way before I met him and I was in high school, Kids came out, and that was such a big, important movie for me and my friends. It felt like there was this really interesting, really new voice, and everyone was fascinated by Kids. And I just followed his movies ever since then. But I didn’t meet him for a long time. You know we had similar friends, but I never met him until he contacted me about a project that we could maybe do together as we knew we wanted to do a movie together but didn’t know which one it was yet.”
When asked about whether he stayed in character for the duration of the shoot, he says, “No. It’s not like I need people to call me Alien or anything, but I have these cornrows in my hair… I mean, I couldn’t get out of character really. I went to the hotel and I waved at people, and they looked at me like they were scared or whatever. Sometimes I forgot what I looked like. So, in a way I was always in character, I couldn’t get out of it. When I do a film, I do research beforehand and then you get to a point where it’s like, “Okay”. You feel like you have enough and something has clicked and you understand your character. And the next step, because I truly believe that half of the work is done by the context, director, production design, wardrobe department and make-up department. All of these elements are doing half of the work, and if I do more than what is asked of me, then it becomes over-acting. “
Spring Breakers recently premiered at both the Venice International Film festival as well as the Toronto International Film festival.
