The movie James Franco admits was a “big mistake”
After a rebellious adolescence, James Franco managed to turn himself around and secured a place at UCLA. Following one year of studying English, he dropped out to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming an actor. During this period, he supported himself with a job at McDonald’s, taking acting lessons in his free time.
After many auditions, Franco received his first significant role as Daniel Desario in the popular show Freaks and Geeks, where he starred alongside his future frequent collaborator Seth Rogan. He also secured a few film roles during the late 1990s, appearing in romantic comedies such as Never Been Kissed.
However, he rose to further prominence after playing the all-consuming titular role in James Dean, a television film made by Mark Rydell. His performance received rave reviews, earning the young actor a Golden Globe for ‘Best Actor – Miniseries or Film’. The following decade saw Franco star in countless big hitters, from Spider-Man to Milk, before he earned his first ‘Best Actor’ nomination at the Academy Awards for his performance in 127 Hours.
Franco’s career has weaved between successful hits and more questionable choices, like The Interview, which led a North Korean cybercrime group to threaten terrorist attacks if the movie was shown in theatres. Franco has also starred in multiple box-office bombs and critical failures, like Why Him? and Child of God. Yet Franco feels one movie was a “big mistake” – Tristan and Isolde.
Released in 2006, Tristan and Isolde was directed by Kevin Reynolds and starred Franco as the eponymous male lead alongside Sophia Myles. The movie was based on the classic romantic story, receiving mixed reviews from critics, who didn’t feel like the film adaptation reached the epic heights of grandeur the story offers. At the time, Franco was excited to secure such a prominent leading role, especially since prestigious filmmaker Ridley Scott was in charge of production.
However, looking back at his decision to star in Tristan and Isolde, the actor believes he made a “big mistake”. Franco wrote about his experience of the film for The Daily Beast, explaining that he “learned a lot” from it. He said: “I was an overzealous young actor and wanted to make great movies. I read the script and wasn’t sure about it, but my acting teacher said it was a role that a young Brando or Olivier would do. I thought, ‘OK…I guess’.”
Franco recalled: “I signed on to the project nine months in advance, and spent every day sword fighting in the backyard of my girlfriend at the time, Marla Sokoloff. I had martial-arts trainers and we’d make sword-fighting videos back there, and then I’d go over to Griffith Park and ride these Andalusian movie horses through the hills. When I got out to Ireland to shoot, they said they had a new version of the script and all the Braveheart-style battle scenes were changed to stealthy murders. All the training I did was useless”.
However, Franco took an important lesson away from the shoot: “I will never do a movie again that I don’t have a special feeling for. I know now that you feel it somewhere in your gut when you believe in a movie, and that’s why you should do it. Don’t do a movie you wouldn’t see or don’t believe in, because movies can be hell to make.”
