James Franco: Soap Role Is Performance Art

Finally, James Franco explains to us what in the world he’s doing guest starring on General Hospital: Performance art. In a look at the genre with which he is “obsessed,” Franco writes about its history—and his newfound spot in said history—for the Wall Street Journal.

• In appearing on the soap, he says, he's out of context, as he would be if he wore Green Goblin makeup and tried to fly on a New York subway platform. "It would be about inserting myself in a familiar space in such a way that it becomes stranger than fiction, along the lines of what I'm doing on General Hospital."

• “My hope was for people to ask themselves if soap operas are really that far from entertainment that is considered critically legitimate.”
• “Performance art can seem pretentious.”
• “After all of the Franco episodes are aired, my character's storyline will be advanced in a special episode filmed in a ‘legitimate’ New York gallery. One more layer will be added to this already layer-heavy experiment.” Speaking of pretentious…

(More James Franco stories.)