Eminem has admitted that he ‘had to stop’ filming a scene in 2014’s The Interview, a film where he acted out a fictionalised version of himself coming out as gay - because of James Franco.
Franco played a late-night talk show host who interviewed the rapper-come-actor in one of the opening scenes of the film.
If you haven’t seen the film, Franco stars alongside Seth Rogen in the film in which they are recruited to ‘interview’ Kim Jong-Un with the CIA
The ‘Lose Yourself’ rapper has on several occasions in the past used the f-word slur in his songs.
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He is asked about this in addition to fake lyrics for a ‘new’ album, after which the fictional Eminem comes out as gay.
When discussing the scene, the rapper revealed that he had to stop filming because of Franco.
A year after the film came out, Slim Shady had a very real interview with Sway Calloway on his radio show Sway in the Morning, where he spoke about filming the absurd scene with Franco.
"Yo, I gotta tell you, man: James Franco was so f-cking funny," the rapper told Sway.
"I couldn't - it was very hard. There was a few takes where we had to stop, like, I couldn't stop laughing."
Franco was apparently so 'animated' Em didn't think he'd be able to keep up. "He [Franco] was so animated and it was like, damn, I wanna be the funny one here," he the best selling rapper admitted. "And he was killin' it."
In the wild scene, journalist Dave Skylark (Franco) sits down with the Detroit-native to chat about his new album. The whole moment pokes fun at the fact the Oscar-winning songwriter includes offensive words in his lyrics and the fake interview zeroes in on words targeting the elderly.
“Die old b-tch, die! Before I murder you,” Em declares in one of the fake lines from the song.
“Well first of all, when I rap I feel like people twist my words,” he replies without any facial expressions.
He then comes out in the most nonchalant way, which makes the team behind the camera second guess if they heard him correctly. “When I say things about gay people, if people think that my lyrics are homophobic, it’s because I’m gay,” Eminem says in character.
Skylark naturally asks Eminem to clarify what he meant, to which Slim Shady doubles down and confirms ‘I am a homosexual’ which leads to ‘gay Twitter blowing up’ and ‘the greatest moment in gay history’, according to news producer Aaron Rapaport (Rogen).
Eminem has previously denied that his lyrics are homophobic and he addressed the controversy around them in an interview with journalist Anderson Cooper in 2010.
When asked directly if he dislikes gay people, Eminem replied: “No, I don't have any problem with nobody. You know what I mean? I'm just like whatever.”
Whilst the scene centres partially around Franco’s character trying to hold Eminem to account and almost ‘cancel’ him before he comes out, this has now happened to Franco.
Franco was accused of sexual misconduct and predatory conduct by five young actors, all of whom were students or mentees of his.
In addition to this incident, which saw two young actors sue Franco, an ex-girlfriend accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex on him in a car.
Topics: Eminem, James Franco, Film, TV and Film
Michael Slavin