Actor James Franco, who only just made it on the list of Hollywood’s class A actors and landed the highly desired job of co-host at the forthcoming Oscar ceremony, told Entertainment Weekly in an interview that he was staggered, as many other people were by the proposal.
In the interview he confessed that at first he bluntly refused to co-host the ceremonies with Anne Hathaway, when Bruce Cohen, the producer, first approached him with the proposal. Afterwards, the 32 years old actor thought about it, but despite doubts accepted to participate in handing the highest movie awards on the 27th of February.
James Franco was worried at the beginning that it would give a bad impression if he was involved with the hosting of the event. In the end, he decided that he didn’t care. The same hesitation was manifested by his representatives.
The reason for their reluctant reaction was that James Franco had been listed for a potential Best Actor nomination for his role in the movie “127 Hours”. However, in the end, the potential nomination only encouraged him.
James Franco also confessed to agreeing to the role because it defined conventional wisdom regarding the best career path, which he views as being boring.
Franco is best known for his part in “Spider-Man 3”, where he played the villain. His role in “Pineapple Express” brought him a nomination for Golden Globe’s best actor category in 2008. Another acclaimed performance was that in “Milk” as boyfriend of Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn.