Looking like a disheveled, leatherbound, lower case "c," James Franco slouched in his seat and attempted to explain how acting could be so soul-draining. "It's such a strange profession," Franco paused, his eyes never meeting the audience or his questioner, artist Laurel Nakadate. "You put everything into your performance, to being someone else, and then ultimately you can be used up and thrown away." This idea of the impermanence of performance relating to the impermanence of life in part inspired Franco to have his friend and fellow actor, Brad Renfro's name carved into his arm with a switchblade.
Franco was at the New Museum yesterday to screen a short film about his carving, "Brad." The deed itself was performed by a tattoo artist with a grey pompadour and a piercing gaze in Renfro's former home, and is interspersed with impressions of Renfro given by his friends. Renfro, who died in 2008 of a heroin overdose at the age of 25, was in two films with Franco, one of which was the 2002 picture Deuces Wild.
"Every young actor I knew was excited about that script," Franco says in the film. "But it turned out to be awful." That so many promising actors could be in such a dismal film was proof in Franco's eyes of his and Renfro's ultimate lack of agency. "It was one of those things where everyone's expectations were so high, but as an actor—it's out of your hands."
Franco speaking with Nakadate (Gothamist)
Recently Franco is known (and ridiculed) for his wide-ranging interests and the frenetic pace at which he works. Yet the only hint of hucksterish, dilettantism came with the obligatory pitch for the switchblades themselves ($850 on artspace.com). If Franco seemed morose and overly earnest, it was because he could be. His artist's statement was literally carved in his own flesh and bore the name of someone he admired and respected who had died a senseless death.
"I just wanted to do something for Brad," Franco said, noting several times that the Oscars failed to honor the actor during the broadcast that year, while Heath Ledger's memory was enshrined. During the Q&A, one man tied this to Franco's performance co-hosting the ceremony, asking him for a reaction to the criticism. The actor humored him, but not before staring at the ground and delivering a gentle rebuke. "The Oscars? That, I just feel like that's a whole—a different, separate issue."
