Paul Rust has revealed that he witnessed an explosive reaction from James Franco after heavy criticism of his performance as co-host of the 2011 Oscars.
After co-hosting the Oscars ceremony in 2011 with Anne Hathaway, James Franco reacted violently on a film set a few days later following harsh criticism of his performance, according to Paul Rust, star of the series “Love”. “I saw James Franco go crazy once. When “Your Majesty” came out, [la société de comédie] CollegeHumor wanted to promote the film by featuring a group of nerds playing [au jeu] Dungeons and Dragons with the stars of the film, James Franco and Danny McBride,” he shared this anecdote in his podcast “With Gourley and Rust”.
An abandoned project
According to him, the incident occurred two days after the American film awards, when the actor was “upset because the reviews were not good. He was in a bad mood.” Thus, during the first take, the actor had “his head down” and “mumbled all his lines”, making the sequence “unusable”. After the director asked the star what he was doing, she began to deviate from the script and improvise her lines. “The idea was this: Each person chooses their character and says, ‘My character is Skibby the Tall, and he’s a wizard who has powers.’ And then comes James Franco, and he says, ‘My character is James Franco, and he starts cooking chorizo,’” Paul Rust recalled.
“He then starts improvising on other things people say about him. So he says, still muttering, head down, ‘James Franco was high on heroin when he hosted the Oscars last night,’” he added. A press officer immediately reacted, warning him that his remarks were being recorded.
Paul Rust continued, explaining that he vaguely remembered that at the time of the awards show, people were wondering if the actor was high on drugs because of the way he was acting. “I don’t know if they said he was high on heroin. And for the record, I don’t think he was high,” he concluded.
A lack of chemistry between the animators
Danny McBride, present during the incident, allegedly tried to calm the situation. “Between takes, he said to James Franco, ‘Hey, if you don’t want to do this, I don’t want you to feel like you have to do it.’ But [Franco] continued. And then I saw James Franco stand up, kick a chair and storm off stage,” he told podcast co-host Matt Gourley. The actor did not return, and although the production tried to remodel the project, it never came to fruition.
The 83rd Academy Awards received heavy criticism for the lack of chemistry between the hosts and the “flat” humor.
