Last November, movie star James Franco surprised the entertainment industry and his fans when he decided to appear on multiple episodes of the soap opera ‘General Hospital.’ He played the character of Franco, a renowned artist who was also a serial killer. He wrote an article characterizing his work on the soap as performance art. Now James Franco has returned to ‘General Hospital’ to conclude Franco’s storyline. On July 22nd, the show will air a special episode filmed at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary art centered around an exhibition of Franco the Character’s artwork. The exhibition was conceived by James Franco, the actor.
This interview was starting to sound like an MFA thesis proposal. I wanted some dirt. I wondered how the rest of the actors on GH felt about his essays on the nature of soap operas and soap acting in the Wall Street Journal and Lapham’s Quarterly. “The only one who said anything to me is [executive] producer Jill Phelps. She loved them, as far as I know. Based on what he’s written for the show, I’m pretty sure [headwriter] Bob Guza has read them and he’s really incorporated a lot of the ideas into the show, which is I think a beautiful thing and really helps further blend all the different aspects of this thing.”
I decided to ask something about Franco the Character’s subtext-laden scenes with the object of his murderous obsession, Jason Morgan, that came across as far gayer than any of Franco the Actor’s sex scenes with Sean Penn in ‘Milk‘. “In your opinion, is Franco in love with Jason, in a sexual way?”
Franco the Actor laughed at this question. “Has somebody ran that story?” he asked. “I haven’t read that.” I tell him that nobody has written a story about it, but it’s the subject of much viewer speculation. He nods. “I think on some level he is. Franco’s certainly a huge admirer of Jason’s. Franco does art based on death and murder and Jason has murdered people. It’s certainly a case of idol worship and being attracted to Jason because he is so close and such an integral part of what Franco recreates in art. So he’s certainly attracted to him on that level. On a sexual level, I don’t know. I guess some of those scenes could be read that way. I have never had a conversation about any of that with either Steve [Burton]or the writers or the producers.”
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