James Franco Interview, Spider Man 3

And the way they ended part, I assumed that would happen. I actually thought it would happen in part 2 until I saw that he was just left hanging at the end. So, I was pretty sure that it would come in part 3 and…you know…my feelings toward the movies have really changed.

When I signed on to the first one I…well I love Sam and I love working with him but I didn’t know what kind of movie it would be.

There were cranes and sets and they kept me waiting about six weeks. And then Tobey got the role. Nobody believes me when I say that I think he’s a perfect for the role.

I think he has done a better job than I would do in that role. But after the test, after Tobey got it, I guess Sam and I got along well enough that he wanted me in the movie. And as far as I know he didn’t audition anybody else for Harry and he just called me up and asked me if I wanted to play that role.

Obviously it’s a smaller role, but they’ve given me a lot to do in that role. It’s one of the more dramatic parts. He goes through a lot in these films.

I’ve been very happy with it.

And then especially in this third one he’s avenging his uncle’s death, and I’m doing the same—I’m avenging my father’s death. They’ve given me a lot. And the great thing about the character too is that he develops through all three films.

His arc is not completed until this last film and in every movie he’s different. It’s the same path, but it’s further along in the development, and it makes doing another movie more interesting.

First he decides he’s going to avenge his father then finds out that the person that killed his father is his best friend, and he has to work through that, and now he’s decided that he’s going to kill his best friend regardless of their friendship.

That’s been his path. They would have to make up a new storyline, and it could be good, but that’s also the point where sequels and franchises get into a little bit of trouble. You have a character and they have a well-thought out story, and then that ends and you want to do more with them and so you say, ‘well, let’s put ‘em in some other crazy situation’ and a lot of the time it’s not as good.

So I think it’s wrapped up very, very well.

But I was still fairly new to movies and it was certainly the largest movie that I’d ever done at that point. We did the world premiere in Japan and Sam introduced all the actors onstage and for me he said, ‘and who I feel like I’ve grown up with…he’s changed so much since the first film.’ I think I worked hard on the first film.

I did a lot of research. I did more research before the first film than on any of them. I literally read hundreds of the Spider-Man comic books and did funny things like went to prep schools and tried to figure out what Harry’s background was and that kind of thing.

I mean there were no real stories, but I don’t know if I was as enthusiastic as I was on the second and third films. When we got to the second film, I had already seen the first, and I knew that they were special movies and that Sam really put something more into these movies to raise the bar for superhero movies and comic book movies and to make them legitimate. My attitude was completely different and I think he noticed that and responded to it.

He’s always been very collaborative, but on the second and third films I think we had an even more collaborative and better relationship. The way he works with the actors on these films is he’ll bring them in before the movie and we’ll go over the scenes and really talk about them and do a lot of rewriting, which is very rare on movies, at least the ones I’ve worked on.

He gave me a lot more responsibility on the second and especially on the third. I remember after the second one premiered, that was like a year or so before we started filming the third one, and we’d meet and talk about the character and he’d let me help him develop the character and…it’s helped…I’ve taken that process…another thing we do is even after the script is written and we’re shooting, there’s still so much discussion.

There’s some days when we’d be on the set and we had a release date before we started filming and so the script wasn’t perfect. I remember sitting on set for a couple scenes and they weren’t ready and so it would just be Tobey, Sam and I sitting on a couch in the middle of the set and camera crew and effects crew and everybody would just be sitting around doing nothing because we were just working out the scene. It might be indulgent but I think it was necessary.

They really wanted to get it right. Now I take that attention to detail that both Sam and Tobey have and that desire just to make it the best possible—the scenes as good as they can be before we shoot. I take that into other films and that collaborative process and I really try to have that relationship with my other directors.

These are huge films. Often there are five units going at the same time, and he’ll be directing the main unit and then there’ll be a queue of people with video monitors to show him the other shots they’ve done that he’ll approve, and the effects team will be waiting, and here he’s produced other movies, they’ll bring videos of actors and actresses auditioning for additional films. I don’t think he’s had a minute’s break for six years.

I have never seen him lose his cool and his enthusiastic good-natured attitude. So I’ve tried to take that. It seems like a small thing but I think it’s very important.

But if you allow people to contribute, they’ll feel more like a part of the final product and feel like they have more of a hand in it and they’ll give their best—so I try and do that. And, then, as far as the smaller independent films, last year I did Spider-Man III for most of the year and then I did a bunch of very small films and I had small parts in them. But I just came to a point where I was…you know I’m grateful that I’m able to support myself and have a career, but there was something about acting that became less satisfying than it had been.

Pineapple Express is a movie I’m filming right now. I’ve actually had to go on a little break so I could be here. It’s another Sony film, so they made it possible.

That was a case where I wanted to work with my old friends from Freaks and Geeks—Judd Apatow is producing and Seth Rogan was a freak with me in that show.

I wanted to do this movie so I’d be around those people again—and also just do a comedy. I think they do the best comedies around so it seemed like a good thing. I’ve wanted to do a comedy for a while.

It’s just hard to find one that is good, you know, that you’re not making a jackass out of yourself for no reason and it’s not even funny.

So I have to put on the suit which takes about a half an hour. The camera crew has to set up for about an hour and then the stunt team has to rehearse whatever move we’re doing, and then they have to strap me in the wires and raise me up, and then everybody gets in line and coordinated and the fans go…the fans blowing air (laughter), and then they say ‘action!’ and then it’s about 20 seconds or less.

I do like one move, and then you cut, and then get down and do the whole process over again.

But there’s some action movies where you do multiple moves in a shot over and over and over again and that can be pretty exhausting, or I don’t know, run a lot. But this is not that. It’s really a case of working myself up for those 20 seconds and making sure that whenever I do those 20 seconds, it matches what happened in the last 20 seconds and keep that continuity of performance over the course of a month and a half.

We choreographed that and we’d do a few more moves per shot, and Tobey and I would have to choreograph it before we shot it and work out the punches and the misses and that kind of thing. But, it was still different than any action movie I’ve done. I shot that for a month and a half as well.

On a normal movie, I probably would have shot that for a week at most. They just take their time and make sure that everything is absolutely perfect on these movies.

Some of the most spectacular action scenes in movies are in these films, so they just take a long time and they also have the budget to do it. On Pineapple Express, it’s a comedy but it’s also an action movie, and part of the joke of it is that the action is very real. You’re with a couple of goofballs and the situation becomes very serious or at least the action does.

The budget on that is nothing compared to this one and probably…a week of—I was going to say I got injured on that. It’s more dangerous to do low-budget action. (laughter)