I know this is July and the Oscars happened way earlier this year, but according to the Hollywood Reporter, James Franco, the guy who took a serious beating for his weird performance as Oscars co-host has finally opened up to Playboy about the material he was given. In his words, he wasn’t sure any of it would work, even when they were in rehearsals.
“It’s hard to talk about because it’s like assigning blame–not a fun thing to do,” he said. “For three or four weeks we shot promos and the little film that played in the opening. In the last week, when we really started focusing on the script for the live show and did a run-through, I said to the producer, ‘I don’t know why you hired me, because you haven’t given me anything. I just don’t think this stuff is going to be good.”
One of his least favorite part of the show was also the tv audience’s least favorite part of the show–the part when Franco came out dressed in drag. Originally, he was supposed to be Cher, but she failed to be nominated for Best Original Song, so the switch was made to Marilyn Monroe, which not only provided no oomph to the show, but also made Franco very angry, to the point of almost deciding to ruin the “moment”, as it were. “I was so pissed about that, I was deliberately going to fall on stage and hopefully my dress would fall off or something–they couldn’t blame that on me; I was in high heels,” he said. “I told them, ‘Look, this is the thing people are going to talk about, the images they will take from the show…’ Me in drag is not funny.”
To read more about the botched behind-the-scenes shenanigans, including the dismissal of scriptwriting by Judd Apataow, click here.
