When General Hospital announced that James Franco would be joining the soap opera for a lengthy story arc, pop culture pundits couldn't fathom the movie star's motivation. Over here at Movieline, though, we sensed the guiding hand of Carter, Franco's frequent artistic collaborator. The two men have embarked on a wide variety of art projects that play with and deconstruct Franco's image, including a VMan photo shoot that handed the actor a flamethrower and covered his face in shaving cream, and Erased James Franco, a 63-minute film (playing November 15 at the Castro Theater in San Francisco) that finds Franco idiosyncratically recreating Rock Hudson from Seconds and Julianne Moore from Safe, as well as some of his own lesser roles.
Yesterday I spoke to Carter, who revealed that he was the mastermind who convinced Franco to appear on General Hospital -- the beginning of their most ambitious collaboration yet.
When it was announced that James Franco was doing this soap, I immediately thought, "Carter." Is it something the two of you had discussed or planned?
Yeah, it's for several different things. It was an idea that I posed to him, and it's tied to another film that he and I are working on now. It's not specifically for another project, because I know that he's really enjoying the challenge of working on a soap -- it's a very taxing job, and an interesting thing for him to be doing -- but it does have to do with another film that he and I are working on.
Can you tell me much about that film?
Not really, because it's in the very beginning stages. It's basically written, and now we're working on getting the other actors involved, which we are super, super excited about. I obviously can't mention them either yet, though I wish I could. Once that happens, we're going to make the best movie ever made. [Laughs] I can't wait.
And would this be a feature film, video art, a gallery piece...?
In my mind, it's definitely not a video, it's a feature film. That's what's interesting about the collaboration that James and I have, the line between what's fine art and what's a commercial piece is a constant puzzle. But in my mind, if you ask me, it's a feature film that's gonna be pretty abstract, for a larger audience.
Since the General Hospital arc is sort of a springboard to this feature, have you had input into what James will be doing on the show?
Well, that's actually stuff that's really unfolding now, because we're shooting it. Hmm, what can I say? Again, it's a fine line between a job that James is doing at General Hospital that's a very serious thing -- something he takes seriously, and it's not a joke -- and at the same time, we're also trying to get something else out of it for another film. It's a weird thing to navigate, but we're still doing it, so I don't know what I can say about it.
James is playing an artist who's obsessed with another actor on the show. Is that an intentional stand-in for you, in a way? Another layer of meta?
Is it intentional? No, I don't think so. Actually, I don't know the full nuts and bolts for how that character came about. The idea did originally come from James and I and our collaboration, and I'm sure that colored the development of the character.
Some people were horrified by the idea that he would do this. They regarded it as career self-sabotage.
People are very critical. Obviously, someone like James Franco -- someone who's not starting out -- does not necessarily have to be on a soap opera. I think this notion of "Why would he dare do something like that? It's a career killer!" is silly. Liz Taylor was on General Hospital, for crying out loud! For James, it's much more of a challenge, and that's to his credit. It's a challenging thing to be on a soap opera -- it's a lot of work, it's a lot of memorization. In the context of him, again, this is not something he would have to do, but it's something interesting to him. I take the credit...but that's why I work with him, too. He's open to doing other things.
What do you think of what's been shot so far? Have you gotten to be on set for it?
I think it's really mind-blowing. I've seen some of the stuff that's shot, and it's really unbelievable. Yeah, I have been on the set doing some stuff. We'll see how it goes.
Does his character's storyline on General Hospital intertwine at all with your film?
General Hospital -- or a soap opera in general -- is part of the film we're working on, but it's not a giant part of the narrative. It's not going to affect the way the film turns out to be.
Now, how did you meet Franco?
He was an admirer of my visual work, my paintings. So we met that way, through my work.
And when you asked him to collaborate with you on Erased James Franco, you found him to be game for the idea?
Oh yeah, from the very beginning. It was very bizarre because I was asking someone to do something very strange, this thing I had described in this film. Once we got over that, it was very easy because he was very open to it and totally got it. I don't know if a lot of people would. I don't know if they would be that trusting and let someone, you know, fuck with them. [Laughs]
Is there something about him that makes him the ideal muse for this ongoing project?
The simple answer is that we're friends. We get what we're doing, and that's half the battle. In a bigger sense -- James Franco in quotes -- I don't know how that's important. Our working relationship and our friendship is what really gets us to do what we're doing. It's a very intimate thing to work on a film with someone, especially when it's something so personal.
When you shot Erased James Franco, it was right before Pineapple Express and Milk came out. How does the fact that he's become more of a celebrity since then -- and that his public image has gotten more defined -- affect your work?
It doesn't affect the way that I approach him, but it might affect the way other people see what we're doing. It's a very good question and it's impossible to answer because an image is a constantly shifting thing -- not just in a relationship, but in a career. So I don't know. [Laughs] We'll see what happens.
He's seemed constantly willing -- or even driven -- to deconstruct himself, whether it's in videos for Funny or Die that deconstruct his celebrity, or through your work. Do you think he wants an outlet for his fame?
You'd have to ask him that question, I wouldn't want to answer for him. I guess that speaking from my point of view, you certainly don't want to be pigeonholed. You want to be open to doing a whole lot of things. I think actors in particular use their bodies and their image and their physicality for their career, and they can be pigeonholed very quickly. Someone like James has a little more that he wants to do with his life, and that's what you're seeing with him poking fun at himself and doing things that a great actor and a Golden Globe winner like he is doesn't necessarily have to do.
I wonder, does this soap opera stint play into the idea of erasing James Franco, in that you're erasing the perception of what an actor of his stature would do?
I would say, yeah. I think what you said is true.
A whole lot of Erased James Franco is about those in-between moments...Franco drinking, Franco picking up a phone and putting it down. I couldn't help but notice that your Twitter seems to be interested in the same minutiae.
You really did your research!
Is that intended to be some sort of commentary or satire of Twitter itself?
You're the best for bringing that up. [Laughs] I thought, "This is something I'm doing and no one is looking at it." It's exactly what you said! It's hilarious. I mean, I'm almost forty, and I'm a little bit past the prime of Twitter. I thought, "I'd better get on Twitter because everybody else is and I don't want to miss out on a very important piece of technology. I need to know about it for communication!" So I got this Twitter account, and the last thing I have time for is to be Twittering. I thought it would be interesting to put exactly what you saw, which is great -- all these mundane moments, like, "I'm sitting on a chair." And it's so funny that people actually read that! "I'm sitting on a chair." I think that's just great. It's fun that it goes out into wherever Twitter is.
Do you think people use their Twitters to establish some celebrity? "Follow me!"
I don't know! It's a certain kind of celebrity, isn't it, like a quasi-celebrity? I really don't know what it is, but you can't deny that it's something. It's really interesting, though -- and it's really not interesting at all. It's truly Warholian to document the most mundane things that no one cares about, but somehow, people are watching.