The New York Times/YouTube
James Franco’s extra-curricular activities have become so increasingly bizarre that hardly anyone bat an eyelid when he paraded around with a shirtless Seth Rogen to recreate Kanye West‘s video for “Bound 2” last month. Here’s a look at five of his biggest oddball moments.
The Justin Bieber Parody
Two years before setting his sights on Kanye, Franco parodied another pop culture icon in the shape of Justin Bieber with a slightly creepy spoof of the teen idol’s hit single, “Boyfriend,” recorded with a little help from Ashley Benson. The pair then did the same for Spring Breakers co-star Selena Gomez’s “Love You Like A Love Song.”
The Kickstarter campaign
Joining the Kickstarter revolution with art duo Praxis in 2011, Franco asked fans to cough up their hard-earned cash in return for pieces of art that were completely conceived in their own imagination. Incredibly, the project dubbed the ‘Museum of Non-Visible Art’ inspired one woman to spend $10000 on a piece titled “Fresh Air.”
The New York Times video
Invited to record a one-minute video for the New York Times‘ ‘Fourteen Actors Acting’ series, a moustached Franco used the opportunity to seduce a mirror image of himself while portraying the ‘chronic narcissist,’ a role he then returned to while promoting his Comedy Central roast.
The Candy magazine cover
Franco has recently dressed as Psycho‘s Marion Crane and channelled his inner Cindy Sherman for various art exhibitions. But his first venture into drag – the Terry Richardson-shot cover for transgender magazine Candy which saw him pose in slicked-back hair, thick red lipstick and blue eyeshadow – remains his most striking.
The Obama poem
While most celebrity fans of Obama took to Twitter to express their feelings on his second inauguration, Franco decided to upload a typically baffling five-minute poem onto YouTube titled “Obama in Asheville” which was as unintentionally amusing as it was pretentious.
