Breaking the rules: James Franco
James Franco believes in exploring the many aspects of creativity beyond acting. That's why he's also directing, writing and studying for his PhD, he tells Doretta Lau
On a spring day in Santa Monica, Hollywood star James Franco is directing a gaggle of models on a set at Pier 59 Studios West. At first, it is hard to spot him in the scrum of stylists and cameramen - he is wearing a baseball cap and is holding a large camera in front of his face. Fog from a machine swirls around him.
Franco is shooting the campaign for 7 For All Mankind's autumn/winter 2013 collection. The theme is Romeo and Juliet, and it marks his fourth collaboration with the Californian fashion brand. For a previous season, he explored the poetry of William Blake in a short film. He cites filmmakers Kenneth Anger and Jack Smith as influences for these projects.
As the models clad in slim-fitting jeans stop for lunch, Franco takes a seat in a dressing room. He is wearing a grey long-sleeved shirt layered over a white tee and black jeans. His persona quickly shifts from kinetic fashion photographer to actor. When the tape recorder is on, he speaks slightly slower, aware that an interview is both a conversation and a performance.
"The great thing about doing this 7 For All Mankind campaign was that it involved all of these aspects of filmmaking, this world that I knew from my other job," he says.
"But there was a new kind of freedom because we were making these films for a different purpose, not to put into big movie theatres and sell tickets. There was a new freedom to … make more, kind of art, films, that we didn't need to tell stories in conventional ways. We could break a lot of the rules, or the tacit rules, that have been handed down for theatrical films. And so it was great. I felt this great sense of creative freedom."
