Gay films cost James Franco ad campaigns

It’s ironic that James Franco just had the biggest box office opening of his career as a lead – in a Disney movie of all things – and some companies have an issue with his image.

That image, at least three companies believe, is tainted by some of the recent gay-themed films the Oz the Great and Powerful star has been in.

The films Kink and Leather Bar premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year and caused much buzz. Now at the South by Southwest Film Festival with Spring Breakers, Franco talked about the fallout.

‘I’ve lost three kind of advertising campaigns now because the companies say they don’t like my image,’ he tells Gay.net. ‘But I know that it’s directly related to the films that I put out at Sundance. So you could say that there’s still this kind of homophobia or prejudice against certain kinds of material in mainstream cinema.’

Franco, 34, has long mixed commercial films like Oz and the original Spider-Man trilogy with edgier independent fare. He won the Independent Spirit Award for his performance as Harvey Milk’s boyfriend in the film Milk.

In the April issue of Attitude, Franco also speaks of losing commercial gigs because of his choice of roles.

‘It is a risk,’ he says. ‘I was supposed to do a commercial with this company and they pulled out because they weren’t happy, they didn’t like the subject matter of my films.’

But he won’t let it impact his future artistic choices.

‘If I’m at the threshold of doing a project and the question comes up, “Will this be harmful to your career?,” I never want that to be the deciding factor.’