James Franco Interviews Himself: ‘I’m Gay Until the Point of Intercourse’

Is James Franco gay? Rumors about the actor’s sexuality have bounced around the industry for years, and while Franco has admitted to being taken as such, his recent FourTwoNine magazine feature does little to dispel — or confirm — the tittle-tattle.

FourTwoNine had Franco interview himself through his two different personas. “Straight James Franco” asks “Gay James Franco” a series of odd questions, and vice versa. The answer: He admits he is gay… in his art… but only sort of.

Franco, now 36, says he has been hit with gay rumors since he was in high school, and he appears to have grown to enjoy ambiguity, fame, and hiding behind “masks.”

“Straight” James Franco sat down with his “gay” side to discuss the many other sides of himself, and he jumped right in.

Straight James: “Are you f–king gay or what?”

Gay James: “Well, I like to think that I’m gay in my art and straight in my life. Although, I’m also gay in my life up to the point of intercourse, and then you could say I’m straight. So I guess it depends on how you define gay. “

He continued:

I like my queer public persona. I like that it’s so hard to define me and that people always have to guess about me. They don’t know what the hell is up with me, and that’s great. Not that I do what I do to confuse people, but as long as they are confused, I get time to play.

Straight James admits: “Maybe sex with a guy would change things, but I doubt it.”

He also doesn’t care that some people think he has gay sex. “Because it means that I can be a figure for change,” he says. “I am a figure who can show the straight community that many of their definitions are outdated and boring. And I can also show the gay community that many of the things about themselves that they are giving up to join the straight community are actually valuable and beautiful.”

Franco also debates about whether his acts of masturbation also make him gay, because he is a man when he touches himself.

You can read the entire self-interview here.